Regarding the interim injunctions as requested by the FDPIC Google and the FDPIC agreed as follows:

1. Until the decision by the Swiss Federal Administrative Court has become final and binding Google agreed to not activate in its online service Google Street View as well as in other products any further pictures taken for Street View in Switzerland.

2. Google undertakes to accept a final and binding court decision rendered in the proceedings concerning Google Street View and is ready to implement it with regard to images recorded for Street View in Switzerland, if and to the extent that the award requests so.

3. Google shall remain entitled to undertake further camera rides in Switzerland. Such camera rides shall be without prejudice and are, in view of the potential outcome of the proceedings, undertaken at own risk. Google may use such camera images only for non-person-related processing within the Google group and products and may not activate the camera images on the Internet as set forth in clause 1.

4. Changing from a monthly information cycle, Google will new inform at least one week ahead in which districts or in the surroundings of which cities recordings shall be made.

5. The FDPIC herewith considers the purposes of the requested interim injunctions as reached and therefore shall withdraw the said requests with the Federal Administrative Court.

6. This agreement shall not effect the legal position of the parties in the pending main proceedings.

Peter Fleischer, Google's Global Privacy Counsel: «We are pleased that we have come to this agreement with Mr. Thuer, under which we can continue taking photographs for Street View. However, we will not put online any additional images on Street View until the decision of the Federal Administrative Court.»

Hanspeter Thuer, Swiss Federal Data Privacy and Information Commissioner: «With this agreement the purposes aimed by the requested interim injunctions are fully reached. During the main procedures no further pictures will be published. The public will be informed in due course of any camera rides. In addition, Google commits to a final and binding Swiss court decision and to implement it also with regard to images, which have already been transmitted outside of Switzerland.»

In the Street View service, which has been online since mid August 2009, numerous faces and vehicle number plates are not made sufficiently unrecognisable from the point of view of data protection, especially where the persons concerned are shown in sensitive locations, e.g. outside hospitals, prisons or schools. For these reasons, the FDPIC issued a recommendation on 11 September 2009, in which he called on Google to improve its efforts to protect personal data and privacy. In its written response on 14 October 2009, Google for the most part declined to comply with the requests.

Even the advance information that Google gave to the FDPIC was incomplete: for example, Google announced that it would primarily be filming urban centres, but then put comprehensive images of numerous towns and cities on the Internet. In outlying districts, where there are far fewer people on the streets, the simple blurring of faces is no longer sufficient to conceal identities. This is primarily due to the website's zoom function, which enables the Street View user to isolate and enlarge images of individuals on the screen.

The height from which the camera on top of the Google vehicle films is also problematic, as was criticised in the recommendation. It provides a view over fences, hedges and walls, with the result that people see more on Street View than can been seen by a normal passerby in the street. This means that privacy in enclosed areas (gardens, yards) is no longer guaranteed.

For these reasons, the FDPIC has decided to take the matter further and to take legal action before the Federal Administrative Court. The full text of the writ is only available in German:

16.02.2009 - Today, the "U.S.-Swiss Safe Harbor Framework" negotiated between Switzerland and the United States of America has formally entered into force. As announced on 9^th December 2008, from now on US-Companies can register on the website of the Department of Commerce and benefit of the advantages the framework has to offer. Practically, this means that Swiss companies can transfer data to registered companies in the United States more easily, while at the same time better data protection is assured and the rights of the people affected are reinforced.