Google was forced to remove hundreds of pictures from Street View, its mapping service, within hours of its launch after complaints from people who said that the system breached their privacy.

The site gives 360-degree views of 25 cities and towns, allowing users to take virtual tours from their computers or mobile phones. It was visited by hundreds of thousands of people when it began on Thursday but Google faced a deluge of complaints from homeowners and members of the public shown by its cameras, who demanded that photographs be taken down.

Bloggers and internet sites posted embarrassing scenes captured by the service. Among the pictures removed were a man vomiting on a pavement, one leaving a sex shop and another being arrested. They were blacked out with the message: “This image is no longer available.”

But Street View users were able to travel a few metres down the road and turn the camera back to see the same people from a different angle.

Google spent more than a year covering 22,000 miles to collect images with car-mounted cameras. Some people complained that viewers could zoom into the open windows of their homes or identify them in their cars.

The company promised to remove any pictures to which individuals objected. “We put tools in place to allow people to remove images quickly, and this shows that the technology works,” it said. “The images have been removed, in many cases within hours.” Google uses technology to blur faces and car number plates but admitted that “sometimes it does not work completely”.

Street View was set up in the face of criticism from privacy campaigners and some MPs. Privacy International, a pressure group, said that it would bring legal action against the company.

Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said that he would ask the Government to have security features of the service “beefed up”. He said: “It is clear from what has happened in the last 24 hours that fun commercial applications can be just as intrusive of people’s privacy as CCTV or security systems.”

Explore Tech & Web

• Personal Tech

• The Web

• Gadgets & Gaming