Switzerland Protests Google Street View
Switzerland is the latest nation to jump on the privacy-concerns bandwagon concerning Google’s Street View program. Swiss authorities are taking legal action.
Two months ago, the Swiss government expressed its displeasure with how “numerous faces and vehicle number plates are not made sufficiently unrecognisable from the point of view of data protection, especially where the persons concerned are shown in sensitive locations, e.g. outside hospitals, prisons or schools.” Since Google has “for the most part declined to comply with the requests” to make changes, the governing body in Switzerland that handles security measures of this sort is taking the case to the Federal Administrative Court. The country’s federal data protection commissioner has expressed concerns that Google’s cameras are intrusive because they’ve taken photos in people’s backyards
Switzerland isn’t alone. Germany, Greece, Japan and the U.K. have all made their concerns clear – in some cases, requiring changes to the different views before Street View could be seen in their respective countries.
Street View has been online in Switzerland since August.
