Swiss Official Demands Shutdown of Google Street View

Security cameras: George Orwell's book "1984" was intended as a warning, not as a design statement.

In case someone spots some missing Jewish gold or artworks stolen by the Nazis and 'looked after' by the Swiss?
(I never said that Yuval made me write it)
Del

I love my Google street view. I feel absolutely no threat from a camera that whizzes past my house every couple of years.

How much more obscure could Google make them? They're already Swiss. Isn't that enough?

*ducks the wheels of cheese*

Whats next, walking along the street and someone yells "hey stop looking at me, that's a violation of my privacy rights". How about taking a picture of your girlfriend and people in the scene demand you blur their faces.

People cannot exactly look at you in real time sitting on the toilet now can they. Perhaps people need to be educated on current technology.

Would it be to harsh to make the general comment "just get over yourselves people, you are not that important, people are not interested in catching a glimps of you, and your life ain't the Truman show".

That's not far from the truth....
I would pretty soon get arrested if I took pics of some of the people I'd like to sketch (OK they are mostly pretty girls )
'But it's for my art officer' ..

I took a pic of two kids looking at a sculpture, and felt I had to be very careful to make sure it was ok with their Mum...

Oi, are you lookin' at me?

Del

Folk are getting weird.

Girl I've known more-or-less since she was born (she used to play with my daughter) had a sprog of her own a year or two back. I asked if she'd mind me taking a couple of photos - it was a very cute kid - and she said "Yes", i.e. she did mind, and she got quite shirty about it .

According to George Mikes in "Switzerland for Beginners", all the people in any one canton hate all the people in the other cantons. The Swiss also have a reputation for vacuum-cleaning the streets in between their villages, so the demand to shut down Street View Maps may have something to do with one-upmanship. After all, it would be terrible if the streets of Winterthur were cleaner than the streets of Appenzell, wouldn't it?

Ho all,

Well I did start out after reading the Swiss people or I should be more accurate and say ONE MAN IN PARTICULAR, does not want this 'street view' from Google because they are small or rather HE is small minded.

However, after thinking for at least 2 minutes, I tend to think the Swiss are making the correct decision. There is now ever less personal privacy, with camera's in most Towns and City's, Motorways, Motorway services, shops, zoos, hospitals, Pubs, ad infinitum.

Perhaps the problem is having this Street View service 'on demand' rather than say, recording pictures early in the morning, when there is hardly anyone around and then putting the now erased faces from the pictures so the street is truly a "street View" rather than a street, people, dog, car, bus, train, plane view? Just a thought.

Take care.