Google's Street View faces trial in Switzerland

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Deutsch: [Googles Street View steht vor einer Klage in der Schweiz | http://www.unwatched.org/node/1594]

Switzerland continues its actions against Goggle’s Street View service. The
Swiss Data Protection Authority has recently expressed its firm intention to
bring Google to court on the matter.

In August 2009, the Swiss Privacy Authority asked Google to interrupt the
service and make adjustments to improve its face blurring technique. Now,
the authority considers that Google has not met its requirements and will
take legal action, as previousely warned.

But Swiss data protection Commissioner Hanspeter Thuer believes
that: “Numerous faces and vehicle number plates are not made sufficiently
unrecognizable.” He also expressed concern for the fact that the images
obtained by Google cameras show people in sensitive places such as schools,
hospitals and that the angle of Google cameras also gives too many details
on fences and walls.

Google expressed its disappointment for the Commissioner’s move considering
the product is completely legal. “We’re proud of the blurring technology
we’ve developed for Street View,” said Google adding that “we wanted to
go the extra mile to address Herr Thuer’s concerns,” by proposing five
additional measures to deliver “improvements in both license plate and face
blurring.”

Mr Thuer has asked the court to order Google to cease its service in
Switzerland and remove all pictures until a ruling has been made. As it may
take some months before this happens, Google might be facing an interruption
of the StreetView service in Switzerland for some time.

Switzerland takes Google to court (13.11.2009)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8358908.stm

Street View in Switzerland (13.11.2009)
http://googlepolicyeurope.blogspot.com/2009/11/street-view-in-switzerland.html

Google’s Street View contested in France and Switzerland (26.08.2009)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.16/street-view-france-switzerland