In a recent letter addressed to Google’s global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer, the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party – the leading privacy watchdog in Europe – has reiterated the opinion that Google’s ‘Street View’ product still violates European privacy laws.

According to the letter, in spite of the extensive talks between European data privacy officials and the Internet search biggie, the contentious Street View product, which enables users to take a ground level view of some locations on Google Maps, “continues to give rise to data protection issues.”

Ever since the last year launch of Street View in some European countries, the Google product has been widely criticized, particularly in Switzerland and Germany, with officials having raised the concerns that the views captured by the technology apparently breaches the privacy laws of these countries.

Noting that identifiable imagery, like faces and license plates are not adequately blurred out to make them unrecognizable, the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party is seeking the inclusion of additional safeguards by Google.

In addition, the group has suggested the appointment of a Google representative in countries where Street View has been deployed to ensure the products adherence to the countries’ privacy laws; as well as the need of “appropriate announcements in the national, regional and or local press” before the images are captured for the Street View map.