Information Commissioner Nataša Pirc Musar made the announcement in a recent tweet, saying that Google's cars mounted with cameras would begin photographing Slovenian streets in the summer. The street view service for Slovenia would subsequently become available early next year.

The Information Commissioner's Office has confirmed for the STA that final talks on the launch of the popular service are under way with the US company.

"Currently we are awaiting more details from [the company] on the exact implementation, including the timetable, public announcements, route selection and similar," the office said.

This was corroborated by Google, which told the STA that it was getting ready to submit the requested information on the recording plan. The company declined to provide more details.

The two sides are expected to provide the details of the project in a joint statement. "The public will by all means get timely information on when and where the recording will take place," Deputy Information Commissioner Andrej Tomšič said.

The development comes more than two years after Google's first attempt to get approval for launching the Street View service for Slovenia was turned down by the Information Commissioner because the company wanted to process the raw images of its recordings abroad.

Back then the commissioner ruled that Google could only take out of the country pictures on which personal information, including faces and car license plates, had already been blurred.

As part of the permission to launch its service, "the Information Commissioner has demanded a broad set of safeguards, from clear public announcements to blurring of faces and license plates and other measures," Tomšič told the STA this week.

He announced that the exact details of the safeguards demanded by the information commissioner as a condition for the approval would be made public in the future.