On July 9, the German Bundesrat (i.e., the Assembly of the Bundesländer) adopted a draft law that aims to extend the Federal Data Protection Act to usage of people's images and that of their homes in online street panoramas such as Google Street View. The draft contains the following provisions:
- Service providers must ensure that neither individuals nor car registration plates are identifiable before respective pictures are uploaded onto the Internet.
- Service providers must publicly announce in advance the collection of the respective data and repeat such announcement prior to making the panoramic views accessible over the Internet; the competent supervisory authorities must be informed with three months prior notice.
- Non-anonymized raw data must be deleted immediately after its upload.
- Homeowners as well as tenants shall be entitled to object to an illustration of their homes in panoramic views on the Internet.
- Individuals are entitled to demand blurring of their faces and, under certain circumstances, also of further individual characteristics such as clothes, etc.
- Service providers shall be obliged to acknowledge receipt of any objection and to inform on when the data will be anonymized.
- Service providers outside of the EU must appoint an authorized representative in Germany.
- Violations of the mentioned obligations shall be punishable by a fine of up to EUR 300,000.
The draft law still must pass the Bundestag, i.e., the German Federal Parliament.
