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Google Street View in English: no luck, but try the French version

Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Google Street View is being taken to the Swiss administrative high court in Bellinzona, Ticino, by Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner Hanspeter Thuer, after weeks of discussions have failed to force the company to comply with Thuer’s directives. The federal government, in a press release Friday 13 November notes that Thuer “requested Google to take various measures to protect personal privacy in its Street View online service. Google has however refused to implement the majority of the measures recommended.”

Google’s Swiss street views went online in mid-August, but 11 September the government ordered the company to better camouflage faces and vehicle license plates, particularly near “sensitive” areas such as schools, hospitals and prisons. Bern says that in its written reply 14 October Google refused to comply with  most of the requests, or take into consideration these problems:

“Even the advance information that Google gave to the FDPIC was incomplete: for example, Google announced that it would primarily be filming urban centres, but then put comprehensive images of numerous towns and cities on the Internet. In outlying districts, where there are far fewer people on the streets, the simple blurring of faces is no longer sufficient to conceal identities. This is primarily due to the website’s zoom function, which enables the Street View user to isolate and enlarge images of individuals on the screen.

The height from which the camera on top of the Google vehicle films is also problematic, as was criticised in the recommendation. It provides a view over fences, hedges and walls, with the result that people see more on Street View than can been seen by a normal passerby in the street. This means that privacy in enclosed areas (gardens, yards) is no longer guaranteed.”

Google, for its part, has not yet published a response. A quick check by GenevaLunch Friday morning of street views for hospitals and schools in Geneva and Lausanne showed that while street views are often not an option if you search in English, they are if you search in French for “hôpital HUG Genève”, for example.

Its latest Street View went online in Canada, with 11 cities, in October, where it has also been criticized for insufficient privacy.

Links to other sites: eCanadaNow, Globe & Mail, Canada, Google Switzerland