A Swiss court said that it has ordered internet giant Google to make all images of individuals and vehicle plates unrecognisable on its Street View picture map, so as to comply with privacy rules.

“The defendants must make all faces and number plates unrecognisable before the pictures can be published on the Internet,” said the Federal Administrative Court in a statement.

The court “concludes that the interest of the public in having a visual record and the commercial interests of the defendants in no way outweigh the rights over one’s own image, as the pictures can be made more or totally unrecognisable, and this is a proportionate measure.”

Street View allows users to take a ground level panoramic view of some locations on Google Maps, based on still photographs taken by specially equipped vehicles.

Switzerland’s data protection commissioner Hanspeter Thuer had complained on several occasions that the service, introduced for Switzerland in 2009, flouted privacy rules.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.