ReadWriteWeb

Bing has unveiled some changes to Bing Maps today that give users a much better view of the street. The newly improved Streetside feature in Bing Maps doesn't just show you the street, but lets you pan up and down it with a seamless, panoramic view of the surrounding location.

Google is bringing Street View to India, an ambitious plan to collect visual data on the vast sub-continent. The project started in Bangalore and will move through the country the way it has done with 25 other countries since 2007.

Google will also try to avoid the same problems that have plagued Street View data collection in other countries, such as alleged privacy violations stemming from Wi-Fi hotspot mapping and identifying individuals.

Even though hundreds of thousands of Germans have opted out of having their homes displayed, Google Street View is now live in Germany.

Search Engine Land reports that the small town of Oberstaufen is the first to appear in Street View, with - as promised - many residences blurred out.

Just over three years ago, Google launched Google Street View with imagery for just five U.S. cities. Today, the company that's categorically trying to digitize everything about our world - from language to location to all the world's written knowledge - announced that it has brought Google Street View to all seven continents.

If you're looking for some Antarctic real estate or some beachfront property on the Emerald Isle, Google Street View can now give you a glimpse of what you're getting into.

According to German news magazine Der Spiegel, "several hundred thousand people" have asked Google to erase their houses from Google Streetview. While Google itself won't comment on these numbers, Der Spiegel cites sources close to Google and notes that the consumer affairs ministry in Germany expected about 200,000 opt-out requests when the program was announced earlier this year. The deadline for opting out of Google Street View in Germany is Oct. 15.

We reported in June that the Attorneys General of 30 U.S. states held a conference call to discuss investigating Google. Google's capture of private information while using Street View cars to gather mapping information has led to a host of legal troubles globally for the company.

Now, this group of Attorneys General has grown to 38 (plus the District of Columbia). It has scheduled a Friday meeting with Google representatives and today it sent the company the latest in a long list of questions it wants answered.

Advocacy group Consumer Watchdog released a report this week claiming that "Google's WiSpy snooping could have sucked up and recorded communications from members of Congress, some of whom are involved in national security issues". The BBC quickly picked up on the story, reporting that Google's Street View "snoops" on Congress members, but overlooks one important piece of the puzzle: If these people are involved in issues of national security, why haven't they put a password on their wireless network?

Australia is only the latest country to announce it is officially investigating Google for its collection of personal information. The company used its Google Street View cars to map Wi-Fi locations. However, it collected not just anonymous and aggregated info, but unprotected personal information which may include emails and photographs.

Australian Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland announced today that the Australian Federal Police are investigating Google for a possible breach of the country's telecommunications interception act.

Google has mapped every Wi-Fi router in every residence and business in Britain, according to the Daily Telegraph. This news is a result of an investigation in Germany earlier this month that uncovered that the company had downloaded emails and other personal information.

Using the Google Street View cars, Google explained it had intended to download what it called public information, such as MAC and SSID numbers. It has since pulled all of its Street View vehicles off the streets. But the mapping of Britain's routers has already been completed.

On its European Public Policy Blog (yeah, there's one), Google spent some column-inches explaining how and why it runs around in special cars spying on you in the shower. Officially known as the "Google Street View Cars," they zip about gathering, "photos, local WiFi network data and 3-D building imagery."

Here is how Google's Global Privacy Counsel, Peter Fleischer, laid out the company's use of the various types of information.