November 18, 2008 by Admin
Google has traditionally enjoyed a good relationship with Europe. It’s a major employer, with a base of operations in Dublin, sizable facilities in London and Zurich and smaller operations elsewhere in the continent and Russia. This relationship is important to Google as it has invested heavily into expanding its European interests over the last five years and intends to continue into the future.
Unfortunately for Google, their good reputation and the company’s chances of further growth in Europe are being damaged by the fact that they continue to fall foul of European privacy laws. In a telling example, Swiss officials are rumoured to be subtly pressing Google to abandon the introduction of ‘Street View,’ its ground level, panoramic mapping service as it directly contravenes a Swiss law against the use of personal images without permission. German law is even stricter – there, the mere process of taking the pictures for the application would be a crime.
The stricter privacy laws in Europe reflect the views of the majority of its people. Europeans are generally highly protective of their civil liberties. Therefore, the main worry for Google will be a public backlash to Street View as well as some other of their more invasive ideas, permanently damaging Google’s good name in the region.
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