Google scored an important victory in Switzerland on Friday, June 8, when it was awarded a court ruled, allowing it to continue providing its Street View service in the country. A Swiss Court ruled the tech giant could publish images on the Internet without having to blur all faces and numbers. The ruling on Friday softens a March 2011 ruling by a lower court saying Google should obscure all faces and number plates from its photo mapping service, a ruling the company appealed.
"The Federal Supreme Court holds that it is not justified to require, in addition to automatic anonymisation prior to publication on the Internet, that all faces and number plates be rendered completely unrecognisable," ruled the court. "It therefore upholds the appeal in part."
Conditions
Faces and number plates must be obscured being published online if the pictures are taken near schools, prisons and other "sensitive facilities," said the court. Meanwhile, images of courtyards and gardens not normally visible to passers-by could only be published with prior consent from the respective owners. Last year, Google had said it could be forced to pull the Street View service from Switzerland if the country's highest court did not overturn the previous ruling from the lower court.
"The Supreme Court has understood that demands are to be made with regards to rendering individuals anonymous for the purpose of internet publication," said Eliane Schmid, a spokeswoman for Switzerland's privacy watchdog, as cited by Tech2.
Privacy Concerns
The controversy over data privacy, however, continues in several countries, as regulators try to balance privacy rights with Google's Street View application, which provides panoramic views of city streets.
Back in 2010, Google acknowledged that its camera-equipped cars used to take pictures for Street View had accidentally collected years' worth of personal data from unsecured wireless networks worldwide. This disclosure generated a lot of scrutiny from authorities in several countries, including Switzerland, the UK, the Netherlands and France.
Favorable Ruling
According to a survey back in December 2011, conducted by market research firm TNS Infratest, found that as much as 60 percent of Swiss people have used Street View, and three quarters responded they liked the service and would use it again, said a Google spokesman.
"We are gratified that the Swiss Federal Tribunal has confirmed a main element of our appeal," Google on Friday, after receiving the favorable ruling. "This acknowledges that we have integrated extensive measures to protect personal privacy into Street View, including automatically rendering faces and license plates unidentifiable."
