On Thursday, as Google is getting ready to expand its Street View function, European Union Data Protection Supervisor, Peter Hustinx, urged the company to take the local privacy rules into consideration.

Although he hasn’t been in official contact with Google with regard to the Street View project, Mr. Hustinx seems to be very well informed on it. According to him, Street View is currently available only in the U.S. but certain modifications are being made in order to prepare the function’s launch in Canada. That proves the service is capable of being differently deployed so that it suits distinct privacy laws. Within the same news conference, Mr. Hustinx encouraged Google to work alongside European data-protection authorities.

Street View enables users to experience a never-before-seen ground-level, 360-degree view of all the street networks in almost 40 U.S. cities. Although initially this was supposed to be an education-oriented tool and help people reach a better understanding of geography, as it involves taking pictures in public places and then openly showing them to the world, it was bound to be controversial.

This week, a facial-recognition algorithm will be deployed in order to scan the images and blur faces. This will first be applied in New York but it will soon also reach the other cities covered by the service.