Today in a cafe I noticed this exchange in between a foriegner and an old Swiss woman. The young guy was making a video/taking a picture of the food being cooked on the grill (#grillinstagram, I am guessing), then the old woman tells him off in German not to make a video or take a picture as it is forbidden. She was not working there. And she asked him to delete it and leave.

I stood nearby and found that exchange quite odd and it got me thinking. How many times I have seen people take pictures in bars, restaurants, myself included; and no one made an issue. And then I noticed this. Is it forbidden or was that just an old woman nagging for no reason? And if it is forbidden, did everyone else not get the memo?

First link is from the EF:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=photography+laws+in+switzerland

There's this little story also... https://www.thelocal.ch/20170531/swi...-taking-photos

If she is not on the pictures she is just an annoying old woman.

I confirmed with another Swiss friend. She said there is no such issue. The problem only arises if you are specifically taking a picture of a stranger and they then ask you to remove it. So, that tourist taking a picture of food being grilled was perfectly within his rights. And that old woman had nothing to complain about, as she was not even in the picture. Typical old woman just nagging.

If it's the only time it happened, it isn't a typical thing for an old woman to do.

yes
no

What a load of BS. (Bergün, not you blueangel )

I agree with the law of not taking pictures of people though. To me it was always also a matter of politeness (long before there was such a law) to ask people.

A few weeks ago I went to the doctors, he's in a very quiet, boring street. A woman from accross the street took (several) pictures for obviously no touristic reasons. It was weird, I guess that's why I took notice of her. I almost told her off but decided to just turn away instead. So all she got was hair, lots of hair. ROFL.

You know what the Africans say, taking pictures is stealing a little bit of your soul (and interestingly enough healers and clairvoyants claim they can work with photos ). So yes, I want to decide who's handy bits of my sould moves into

A woman from accross the street took (several) pictures for obviously no touristic reasons.

Is "touristic reason" the only permitted reason to take pictures ?

I wonder how many threads about my photographic inventory sessions on future construction sites exist in the internet...

As far as I understand the laws in Switzerland, even taking photos of a specific person, in public, is no problem as long as you don't publish it (on facebook, instagram, in a book), in a way that the person is recognizable, without their permission.
Unless it's a public event, like a demonstration, or a football match, etc.
If you're on private property (for example a train station, a shop) you need the permission of the property owner.

And a fun fact, you need to pay royalties if you publish a photo of Paris at night, because of the lights on the eiffel tower.

But.. but.. but... what if you are a private detective trying to caught some wife making an affair????

Some months ago I was at Zurich and the FLUFFIEST CORGI THAT YOU COULD IMAGINE pop out of a store to play with another dog, and while was playing I was filming it because it was amazingly fluffy, seconds later the owner of the store came out to separate the dogs and ask me if I could stop filming, thing that off course I did... but... why? If I had the fluffiest Corgi on earth i would be more than glad that people film it and take some pictures

Actually the reddit link is better since it has an English translation as well as linking to the official site.

https://www.reddit.com/r/photography...n_switzerland/

https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/datenschu...x.html?lang=de

https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/datenschu...x.html?lang=fr

https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/datenschu...x.html?lang=it