US search engine giant Google has been called upon by the EU data protection authorities to make some changes to Google Street View, mainly shorten the period for which it stores images on the service, because of privacy concerns.

The service was launched by Google in 2007, and is aimed at giving users the capability to navigate around a 360-degree view of city streets, buildings, traffic and people. But now, it seems that the European nations have started to have problems with the same, and feel that it is breaching privacy.

Many believe that Google has failed to protect privacy of people, obscure sensitive images and has ended up setting cameras in a way which lets them peer over fences, hedges and walls into private property.

Privacy authorities are demanding that Google, which now keeps images for a year, should halve this period.

"The Working Party believes that a maximum retention of six months for the unblurred copies of the images would strike the right balance between the protection of privacy and the ability to eliminate false positives", the authorities wrote to Google in an official letter.

While some are blaming Google for breach of privacy, Google can well turn around and call the demand an attempt to curb the freedom of expression.

As of now, the matter is under consideration and a final decision is awaited.