Athens  - Greece`s data protection agency has stopped Google from continuing to photograph Greek streets for its Street View service, it was reported Wednesday, pending further reassurances on privacy from the US internet giant.

Street View provides users a 360-degree view of the urban landscape via an icon on Google Maps.

The Greek authority wants Google to specify how long it intends to keep its images online and what measures the search engine intends to take to inform residents who may be photographed of their rights.

The service, launched in the US two years ago, now covers nine countries, including the United Kingdom and Google has said that it wants to expand its service to cover all of Europe.

Users are given the option of zooming in to a given location in Google Maps and can then drag the icon located above the zoom bar to a given street.

Upon zooming, users are given a picture view of the street and a 360-degree view of the area.(dpa)