Street View & Behavioural Adds

Bart van der Sloot

Google Street View & Behavioural Advertising

Bart van der Sloot has published extensively on the topic of Google Street View and related services. Privacy in the public domain is a very sensitive issue about which much confusion exists. In addition, he co-authored a report for the Dutch government on the implementation of the new cookie rules, as provided by the revised e-Privacy Directive, in the Netherlands. In connection, he has discussed the regulation of behavioural advertising and targeting, do not track initiatives and cookie-walls.

This paper aims to report the main findings of a study for the Dutch Regulatory Authority for

the Telecommunications sector OPTA to explore how the new European ‘‘cookie rules’’ in the ePrivacy Directive impact on behavioral advertising practices via the storing and reading of cookies.



The paper identifies the main dilemmas with the implementation of the new European rules. The Dutch case provides a valuable reality check also outside The Netherlands. Even before the amendment of the directive, The Netherlands already had an opt-in system in place.



From the Dutch experience important lessons can be learned also for other European countries.


Download the article here.




This article regards the regulation of cookies, behavioural advertising and Google Street View in Europe. It is published in the Computer law review international: a journal of information law and technology and titled 'B. van der Sloot & F. J. Zuiderveen Borgesius, ‘Google's dead end, or: on Street View and the right to data protection: an analysis of Google Street View's compatibility with EU data protection law’.


It can not be downloaded digitally, but it is possible to order the journal here.

This chapter discusses the interplay between the European personal data protection

regime and two specific Google services: Personalised Advertising and Google Street View.



The chapter assesses first the applicability of the Data Protection Directive, then jurisdictional issues, the principles relating to data quality, whether there is a legitimate purpose for data processing, and lastly the transparency principle in connection with the rights of the data subject.



The conclusion is that not all aspects of the services are easy to reconcile with the Directive’s requirements.



Buy the chapter here or download a draft here.

This report regards the implementation of the new cookie-rules provided by e-Privacy Directive, after the revision of the Citizen's Rights Directive in the Netherlands.



The Netherlands was one of the first countries in Europe to implement very strict and restrictive rules for internet publishers wanting to use first and third party cookies for either statistical analysis or behavioural advertising.



The report is available only in Dutch.



Download the report here.



Other Scientific Contributions

Article on Google Street View (in Dutch only)


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Article on Google Street View (in Dutch only)


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Article on Google Street View (in Dutch only)


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Article on Behavioural Targeting (in Dutch only)


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