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Two weeks after Google announced a smartphone application that can identify objects and people through camera phone images, debate still rages about the privacy implications of potentially being able to identify strangers.

The experimental Google Goggles application lets people search for information by simply pointing their phone at the world around them. The promotional video shows examples of looking up information about a book, identifying a landmark, finding reviews of a restaurant and automatically adding someone’s contact information from their business card.

But Google says that they also have the technology to identify faces, if there are public pictures of that person online.

The product was released amid mounting controversy over Google’s handling of privacy issues. In an interview with CNBC on December 3, Google CEO Eric Schmidt CEO said “if you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

Online rights advocates were quick to respond.

“Schmidt’s statement makes it seem as if Google, a company that claims to care about privacy, is not even concerned enough to understand basic lessons about privacy and why it’s important on so many levels — from protection against shallow embarrassments to the preservation of freedom and human rights,” said Richard Esguerra of the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation in an online statement.

Because of these concerns, Google has yet to enable the facial recognition features of the application.

“We do have the relevant facial recognition technology at our disposal,” Google spokesman Anthony House told the Daily Mail earlier this week. “But we haven’t implemented this on Google Goggles because we want to consider the privacy implications and how this feature might be added responsibly.”

The technology works by searching the web for images that match a camera phone photo. It cannot identify objects and people from privately uploaded images, but many users of Facebook and other photo sharing sites choose to make images of themselves public. Another person might also upload a picture of someone and tag it with their name, making it identifiable.

When applied to things and not people, Google Goggles has received a more positive reception. In an independent test by IntoMobile, Google Goggles was able to identify a video game box and a brand of beer, but could not provide useful information when pointed at a magazine and a common computer mouse. It correctly identifies landmarks in a Reuters test, and popular works of art in a demonstration by a Google employee. In another test it had problems identifying the PricewaterhouseCoopers company from an image of its logo, returning an image of tennis player Jimmy Arias instead with the logo just visible on a tiny adverstisement in the background.

Google emphasizes that the technology is “in its infancy.”

Law enforcement agencies and governments have been experimenting with facial recognition technology for years, but it has so far not been available to the public.

Google Goggles was released on December 6 for phones with the Android operating system, such as the HTC Magic, which is available in Indonesia. Google says it will shortly be available for iPhone and other mobile devices.