Google Street View: Swiss Supreme Court Achieves a Pragmatic Balance

In its decision of 30 March 2011 in a case brought by the Swiss Federal Data Protection Authority against Google, the Swiss Federal Administrative Court imposed substantial conditions on Google's Street View offering.

The decision, reported on in our Swiss IP&Technology Briefing of June 2011, was appealed by Google to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, which in turn issued its decision on 31 May 2012 (case 1C_230/2011). This latest decision, generally seen as a victory for Google, overturned the decision of the Federal Administrative Court in only one, albeit important, point.

Not surprisingly, the Federal Supreme Court agreed with the Federal Administrative Court that the raw data collected by Google and the resultant published images relating to identifiable persons constitute personal data within the meaning of the Swiss Data Protection Act.

The Court...

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