Google will soon start gathering data for its Street View service in European countries and in South Africa, reports Reuters.

As per the reports published by Google on its European Public Policy blog, the search giant is soon to put back its controversial Street View cars back on the path, after seeking permission from data protection regulators in countries including Norway, Sweden, Ireland and South Africa.

However this time it is believed that the company would be careful not collect any data from Wi-Fi networks they pass - an activity that put the company in trouble with privacy regulators worldwide, and which Google terms it to be an "error". Vice president of engineering at Google Geo, Brian McClendon stated: "In May we announced that we had mistakenly included code in our software in Street View cars that collected Wi-Fi payload data."

Although, Google has apologized for the incident and assures of full cooperation with, focus on its task of collecting photographs and 3D images.