Google has launched a dedicated Street View site that seeks to explain and demystify the visual mapping program:

Accordingly, privacy is one of the prominent links on the page. Among other things there’s an interesting discussion of business use cases and how to “promote your business” using Street View:
August 5, 2009 at 1:12 am
Interesting, Greg. Thanks for covering this. I used a Google Street View shot of Hwy 101 recently to depict what herbicide damage looks like on public highways. I’m sure there are many people finding new clever uses for StreetView.
August 5, 2009 at 1:22 am
That’s a good use. I’m sure they could catalog a range of interesting and unexpected uses like that.