Switzerland Shows Google Street View a Stop Sign

A Swiss government official is demanding that Google immediately remove any image of Switzerland from its "Street View Maps," and the company said today it would discuss the matter with the privacy rights regulator. Switzerland's federal data protection commissioner says Google's pictures violate the country's strict privacy laws by failing to obscure people's identities.

"Numerous faces and license numbers weren't blurred or were done so inadequately," Hanspeter Thuer said in a statement, adding that he "demands that Google Inc. immediately take its Google Street View online service off the Internet" until it can ensure that public images respect Swiss law. Thuer said he would meet with Google this week. (More Google stories.)