privacy european-union germany photography
Is it really illegal for Google to keep unblurred Street View imagery made in Germany and even in European Union?
<p>If so, what exact laws are responsible for it?</p>

<p>I'm a big fan of Google Street View and I have heard that it's illegal in European Union and in Germany to keep street view imagery in unblurred form indefinitely. At least as this article claims (about EU).</p>

<p><a href="http://gizmodo.com/5482668/google-must-delete-raw-uncensored-street-view-photos-within-six-months-in-uk-or-eu-regulators-will-be-mighty-unhappy" rel="nofollow">http://gizmodo.com/5482668/google-must-delete-raw-uncensored-street-view-photos-within-six-months-in-uk-or-eu-regulators-will-be-mighty-unhappy</a></p>

<p>I'm absolutely upset by this allegedly existing regulation and I'm trying to construct a campaign against it - I myself live in Germany and I feel moral obligation to fight this immoral regulation (because it hinders historical preservation which is moral value too).</p>

<p>From what I know, their reasoning is that faces and license plates are private information and private information must be deleted as soon as possible after it's no longer needed.</p>

<p>Do Germany and European Union really have any laws prohibiting storing unblurred Google Street View? If so, what exact laws are responsible for it? It's about storage itself, not publishing.</p>

<p>Thank you very much.</p>

<p>There are a number of laws which street view may offend. A summary is available <a href="https://www.google.com.au/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&amp;ion=1&amp;espv=2&amp;ie=UTF-8#q=privacy%20laws%20google%20street%20view" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p>

<p>Privacy is only one of the concerns. </p>

<p>The other major one is that most countries have laws which prohibit commercial exploitation of people's images without a model release. There is no doubt that street view is a commercial operation even if all it does is serve as advertising for Google. If Google is using my photograph to promote their business then I should be paid for it, right?</p>

<p>The concern you raise about a historical record has been raised before (see linked article).</p>

<p>You will probably not succeed with such a campaign in Germany. The right to have the image of your home blurred goes down in its core to the right of informational self-determination (<em>Recht auf informationelle Selbstbestimmung</em> - Art. 1 I GG, Art 2  I GG) that the German constitutional court has defined in 1983 (BVerfGE 65, 1 ff.). This is not only a constitutional right and as such needs a 2/3 majority to amend, it derives from Art. 1 GG, which is the core of all constitutional rights and is unamendable and unviolatable (see Art. 79 III GG). That means that all amendments to that article are void, so even <em>if</em> parliament would try to change the constitution in that respect, they simply couldn't.</p>

<p>And I'm pretty sure you won't find a majority in the German population to such a law, even less 2/3. No MP looking for reelection would support that law. </p>
