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Google's controversial Street View mapping service has been banned in Greece until the company comes up with extra privacy guarantees.

The country's Data Protection Authority (DPA) took the decision despite receiving assurances from Google that it would blur faces and vehicle registration plates when displaying the images online.

Street View, launched in the US in 2007, provides 360-degree panoramic images of streets and roads that the user can manipulate, as part of Google’s online mapping products. Its launch in the UK in April provoked a storm of protest, as people claimed it would help burglars seek out where to strike and invaded home owners' privacy. Residents of Broughton, a Buckinghamshire village, formed a human chain to stop the Street View car and harangued the driver.

The Data Protection Authority said it wanted clarification from Google on how it would store and process the original images and safeguard them from privacy abuses. It also sought clarification on how Google planned to inform the public that its vehicles with mounted cameras are being used to take photographs. Street View cars are reported to have started taking photographs in Athens last month in preparation for the service.

“Simply marking the car is not considered an adequate form of notification,” a statement from the authority said. “The authority has reserved judgment on the legality of the service pending the submission of additional information, and until that time will not allow (Google) to start gathering photographs.”

Elaine Filadelfo, a Google spokeswoman, said the company would be happy to provide further clarification to the authority, and added that the service in Greece would help tourists.

“Google takes privacy very seriously, and that’s why we have put in place a number of features, including the blurring of faces and license plates, to ensure that Street View will respect local norms when it launches in Greece,” she said.

“We believe that launching Street View in Greece will offer enormous benefits to both Greek users and the people elsewhere who are interested in taking a virtual tour of some of its many tourist attractions.”

Street View has expanded to more than 100 cities worldwide. However, it has drawn complaints from individuals and institutions that have been photographed, including the Pentagon, which barred Google last year from photographing US military bases.

In the UK the Information Commissioner’s Office cleared Street View of any breach of the Data Protection Act. “In the same way there is no law against anyone taking pictures of people in the street as long as the person using the camera is not harassing people. Google Street View does not contravene the Data Protection Act and, in any case, it is not in the public interest to turn the digital clock back," an official said.

In Greece the DPA has repeatedly ruled against Greece's conservative government and banned the use of street cameras for fighting crime. The cameras were set up as part of elaborate security preparations for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

The DPA on Monday also ordered a Greek mapping site, kapou.gr, to suspend a similar street-level image service until it provides further privacy clarifications and uses face-blurring on its online images. The Greek site yesterday said it had stopped posting photographs while it was upgrading its service.

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