Google Street View vs. data protectionists in federal court: both satisfied with ruling

"We are pleased that the Swiss Federal Court has upheld us in a key component of our appeal," said Daniel Schönberger, Head of Legal Switzerland, Google. "It thus recognizes that we have integrated extensive data protection measures in Street View - such as the automatic anonymization of faces and license plates. We are now taking a close look at the ruling, discussing it with the federal data protection commissioner and examining the options available." Google Switzerland wrote this in a media communiqué on Friday.

Switzerland's top data protection official Hanspeter Thür is also "very satisfied" with the Federal Supreme Court's ruling on Google Street View. He wrote this in a statement on Friday, according to SDA. He had demanded strict conditions for the publication of images on Google Street View and criticized, among other things, that the high-altitude cameras also allowed views into private areas such as enclosed yards or gardens. He therefore demanded the pixelation of all faces on Street View.
 
Now the Federal Court has largely supported this criticism. The ruling states that private areas that cannot be viewed by ordinary passers-by may not be published without the consent of the persons concerned. Private areas that cannot be viewed by ordinary passers-by may not be published without the consent of the persons concerned, according to the ruling. Recordings of sensitive facilities such as hospitals, courts, schools and women's shelters must be completely anonymized. It must not be possible to draw any conclusions about the person. Features such as skin color, clothing or aids for the physically disabled must also be made unrecognizable. Manual processing of the images is required for this.manual processing of the images is required for this. However, according to the Federal Court, the error rate in the pixelation of faces must not exceed one percent. The company must continuously improve the software with the aim of further reducing the error rate. Google must document these improvements to the FDPIC on an ongoing basis.
 
With its ruling, the highest court underlines that the anonymization of persons must meet high standards when published on the Internet, writes Thür according to SDA. It thus confirms his legal opinion in central points.