Many in Berlin have long viewed Google's Street View service with some suspicion. Now, Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner has called for better privacy laws. She says that even intelligence agencies wouldn't "collect photos so unabashedly."

Those wishing to peer into German front yards are often disappointed. In cities and towns across the country, tall fences and dense hedges have long been favored as way to ward off prying eyes.

For Google, of course, such barriers are but a trifling annoyance. In gathering photographic data for the Internet service Street View, the company simply installed cameras on car-mounted masts some 2.5 meters (just over eight feet) off the ground - high enough to peer into most domestic fortresses.

In Germany, however, the obstructions aren't just physical in nature. Many have voiced concerns that Street View represents a blatant violation of privacy. Indeed, the company was challenged in Hamburg, being forced last year to agree to erase data depicting people, property and cars upon request.

Now, a German cabinet minister has gone on the offensive. In an interview with the news magazine Focus, Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner has called for a law to better protect the private sphere on the Internet and has taken Street View to task.