GERMANY — Google Street View faced a storm of protest before launching its service in Germany — and apparently for good reason.
An image of a naked man lying in the trunk of a car surfaced on the website on Friday, the same day the Street View service was launched in the country.
The photo shows the man lying naked in the back of the car, trying to open or close the trunk door on top of himself.
The photo was taken in the city of Mannheim, one of 20 cities including Berlin and Hamburg, which were photographed by the Google camera cars.
The image was promptly blurred out but some media outlets captured the photo before it was edited.
Nearly 240,000 residents in Germany opted to have their houses blurred out before the Street View service went live on the internet.
It has been the only time Google has allowed people to choose whether their homes should be blurred.
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