Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Google and the Swiss data protection boss, Hanspeter Thuer, Thursday 17 December reached a temporary agreement on Google Street View while a Swiss government lawsuit is pending against the company. Google will refrain from activating Google Street View, under the terms of the agreement, as well as any other Street Views in Switzerland taken for other Google products. Google has also agreed to accept as binding a court decision on the matter “and is ready to implement it with regard to images recorded for Street View in Switzerland, if and to the extent that the award requests so”, according to the official Swiss government announcement on the agreement.
Google nevertheless retains the right to use its cameras, at its own risk, while the court case is underway, but it cannot use the image on the Internet. The company has also agreed to move from monthly to weekly alerts to communities and neighbourhoods about its plans to film in their areas.
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:
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Faces too easy to see and car license numbers too clearly visible: Google Maps street views have crossed a legal line in Switzerland just two days after springing views of Geneva and other cities on the world. The Swiss data protection and privacy commissioner, Hanspeter Thuer, Friday 21 August told Google to immediately remove its street views from the Internet because the required blurring of key data such as faces and license plates, has not been done adequately. Thuer and Google managers will meet early the week of 24 August to review the situation.
Google’s new Swiss street views were unveiled Wednesday 19 August.
Data and privacy commissioner’s web pages on Google Street View (Fre)
