Swiss Federal authority sues Google
The Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (SFDPIC) on Friday 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.
SFDPIC said in Zurich 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 SFDPIC, 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.”
The FDPIC had sent a recommendation to Google on September 11, asking it to protect personal data and privacy of the people.
However, Google in a reply 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.
