Google’s Street View service was today cleared by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office of any breach of the Data Protection Act, but the ruling has angered privacy campaigners.

Speaking in response to a complaint filed by the pressure group Privacy International, David Evans, the Senior Data Practice Manager of the ICO, said: “It is important to highlight that putting images of people on Google Street View is very unlikely to formally breach the Data Protection Act.

“Watch the TV news any day this week and you will see people walking past reporters in the street. Some football fans’ faces will be captured on Match of the Day and local news programmes this weekend – without their consent, but perfectly legally.

“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.

“In a world where many people tweet, Facebook and blog it is important to take a common sense approach towards Street View and the relatively limited privacy intrusion it may cause.”

The ICO acknowledged that it has received numerous complaints from people unhappy to find their image on Google Street View, but said that the removal of an entire service would be “disproportionate to the relatively small risk of privacy detriment”.

Mr Evans said: “As a regulator we take a pragmatic and common sense approach. Any images of people’s faces or number plates should be blurred. We emphasised the importance of blurring these images to protect people’s privacy and limit privacy intrusion. Google must respond quickly to deletion requests and complaints, as it is doing at the moment. We will be watching closely to make sure this continues to be achieved in practice.”

Simon Davies, the director of Privacy International, which made the complaint, was intensely irritated by the ruling. “Our view is that the ICO is being mischievous at best,” he told The Times. “It has entirely misrepresented Privacy International’s concerns and complaint. We never sought the shutdown of Google Street View, as this ruling implies.

“We wanted to get Google to focus on the technological solutions and to get the commissioner to uphold the principles behind the law. Instead, he has sacrificed principles for pragmatism, an approach we believe has already been responsible for many of the privacy invasions in Britain.

“We are now concerned that there is a systemic dysfunction in the way the commission handles complaints, in that it is starved of technological advice. We are calling for the creation of a technological advice office, and for greater rigour to be applied to the ICO’s relations with companies and government.”

Google Street View gives 360-degree views of the biggest cities, allowing people to take virtual tours from their computers or mobile phones. The company’s camera-equipped cars, which take the photographs for Street View, aim to cover as much of Britain as possible.

The service launched in the UK on March 20 this year, and has rarely been out of the headlines since. On April 3, the residents of Broughton, Buckinghamshire, formed a barricade to prevent the Google car from entering their village, claiming that it would lead to a rise in burglaries.