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| Street View service lands Google in Swiss court |
| Press Trust of India / Zurich/New Delhi Nov 13, 2009, 21:10 IST |
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 The Swiss Data Protection and Information Commissioner today said it is taking Google to the Federal Administrative Court over the search engine's refusal to conceal privacy of the people/places in its 'Street View' service.
Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) Hanspeter Thur said in Zurich today that it is taking the matter to the court, as Google has refused to implement majority of the measures it recommended to the company earlier.
Google Street View is a feature of Google Maps and Google Earth that provides a vertical panoramic view of many cities around the world.
As per FDPIC, numerous faces and vehicle number plates in the Google's Street view service are not blurred enough "from the point of view of data protection, especially where the persons concerned are shown in sensitive locations like outside hospitals, prisons or schools".
Accordingly, the FDPIC has sent a recommendation to Google on September 11, asking the search engine giant to improve its efforts to protect personal data and privacy of the people or places featured on its service.
However, Google in a written response on October 14 declined to comply with the said requests, saying blurring of faces was no longer sufficient to conceal the identities primarily due to the website's zoom function, which enables the Street View user to isolate and enlarge images of individuals on the screen.
Besides, the height from which the camera on top of the Google vehicle films is also problematic. It provides a view over fences, hedges and walls, with the result that people see more on Street View than can be seen by a normal passerby in the street.
"This means that privacy in enclosed areas (gardens, yards) is no longer guaranteed," Thur said.
For these reasons, the FDPIC has decided to take the matter further and to take legal action before the Federal Administrative Court, Thur added.
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