Google will continue to take pictures of the streets of Britain and put them online for its controversial Street View mapping service, the head of Google Maps has told The Times.

John Hanke said the feature was already widely used in the UK and dismissed concerns that it might help burglars plan where to strike. The company plans to provide coverage of most of the country by the end of next year.

At the offices of Google Maps and Earth in Mountain View, Silicon Valley, Mr Hanke said: "We know it is really popular and people are using it broadly and I am totally convinced that they are not all using it to plan robberies. I tend to think that societies like ours come down on the side of information being good for the economy and good for us as individuals."

Google Street View, which was introduced in Britain last month, gives 360-degree views of big cities at street level, allowing people to take virtual tours from their computers or mobile phones.

The company’s camera-equipped cars have been travelling around British streets since last year. The cars take images only on public roads and produce a seamless panoramic view of a particular street on a particular day.

Street View automatically blurs out images of people's faces and car registrations, although the technology is not perfect. Anyone wishing to have images removed can contact Google which says most requests are processed within hours.

Claims that the online feature is an invasion of privacy have combined with fears that it provides easy information for burglars and there were calls for the service to be dismantled. Earlier this month villagers blocked a Street View car from entering Broughton in Buckinghamshire, claiming it was intrusive. Privacy International, a pressure group, has sent a formal complaint about the service to the Information Commissioner's Office, citing more than 200 reports from members of the public who were identifiable on Street View images. The group has asked for the service to be suspended.

Mr Hanke said that Google believed it was acting within the law and that the benefits of the service outweighed concerns about its intrusiveness. "Public debate is very healthy and that is a good thing. The reason we are doing it is because we think it has a lot of benefits."

Asked about the villagers of Broughton, he said: "It is their community. People should work through what the real risk is. My request is that we not buy into some of the negative hype and really think about what Street View is and where it fits into society."

Mr Hanke said Street View was part of the trend for people to use social media, like YouTube, Flickr or Facebook to publish online their descriptions and images of the world around them.

"Generally the side of openness is one that serves us well as a society, in terms of enriching our lives by better information and better choices," he said.

Google promotes Street View as a useful tool for househunting, planning holidays or working out where to meet friends. Mr Hanke said that combined with the Google Maps service, it was a "reasonable proxy" for going there yourself.

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