Swiss court to rule on Google Street View privacy

A Swiss court is considering a request from the country's data protection commissioner that Google should manually blur people's faces in its Street View imagery application rather than use automated technology.

Hanspeter Thuer, the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), contends that too many faces are missed by the automated blurring technology and that people should review the images. Google and the FDPIC both made presentations to a five-judge panel of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court, which will issue a ruling in a few weeks, said Eliane Schmid, the FDPIC's information officer. Google has been in a long-running battle with Switzerland over Street View since it came online in that country in August 2009. A month after Street View's launch, Google was warned by the agency that it should take more steps to protect people's privacy and gave Google some recommendations, including to more carefully blur people who are outside sensitive facilities, such as hospitals and prisons.