SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Anyone who was outside and using the sidewalks last week may have been captured by search engine Google's high resolution panoramic camera as it was driven around Yellowknife's streets, mounted on a red car.

Role reversal: The Google car is snapped by Jason Simpson as it zips around Yellowknife capturing panoramic images of the streets. - photo courtesy of Jason Simpson

Google is in the process of collecting data for Street View all over Canada - including Yellowknife and Whitehorse. The service will allow users to see high resolution, 360-degree images of streets that have been captured.

In March, Google announced it would be bringing Street View to Canada. Spokesperson for Google Canada, Tamara Micner, would only say the service would be available for use "soon."

"It is quite an impressive process," said Micner. "It involves converting all these individual panoramic images into the continuous thing that you see."

Street View is already available in nine other countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and Australia. Google hires contractors to drive the camera mounted cars, trying to capture as many public roads as possible.

Micner said many people do not notice they have been snapped by Street View, while others use it as an opportunity to promote themselves or various other initiatives.

"We sometimes see people doing really creative things around Street View, like making creative use of it for websites or business, or for their own use. That's the thing with Street View, people use it for so many things," she said.

When asked about the privacy issues that may arise from the service, Micner said Google has several tools which allow people to protect their anonymity.

"We have many privacy protections built into Street View, such as automatic blurring of faces and licence plates, and a very easy tool within each image where you can request the removal of something that you think is sensitive or objectionable," she said.

She said Google makes every effort to meet the privacy standards of any area they are mapping.

"We do make sure that in any country where we're launching a product, it complies with local norms, customs and laws," she said.

Director of research at the Privacy Commission, Colin McKay, said the commission does have some concerns about Street View, and has been talking to Google for the past two years about the issues.

"We saw the images that were available in the United States and we wanted to point out to them (Google) that Canada has specific national privacy laws that the United States does not," he said.

McKay said the commission was particularly concerned with images of faces, saying they are considered personal information.

"Ideally we would like them (Google) to receive consent from people before they had their pictures taken," he said.

He added that Google has been receptive to the commission's concerns, and has taken steps to address them. McKay advises anyone who is unhappy with being included on Street View to contact the Privacy Commission.

"If they feel their privacy has been breached they can certainly contact us," said McKay. "We will take down the details and either provide them with assistance to deal with the company or how to pursue a complaint."