German court calls Google aerial imagery 'spying'

Unless I'm mistaken about 20 years ago Germany was the first country that required that Google blur people's faces and licence plates on Gmap's Street View. There was initially much opprobrium about this limitation on free expression. And many technical objections to the scale of the task of identifying all the people and blurring were raised. These technical issues were overcome. It would seem we now accept the anonymity blurring as both not only necessary but an obviously good idea.

Edit: It was 2009.

https://www.cnet.com/home/smart-home/nearly-3-percent-of-ger...

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-11595495

Hmm interesting. Are they saying the general accessibility of the platform is what shouldn't be allowed or the photograph itself?

> The judges also determined Google must provide property owners with advance notice when an area is photographed.

But Google's satellite imagery is from a blend of providers like Vantor WorldView, GeoEye, Landsat, etc so....

I don't have any evidence, but I suspect the number of criminals that rely on aerial imagery to plan heists is negligible. On the other hand, I think most people would deeply regret if universities couldn't monitor foliage for land use/climate studies, archaeologists had to traipse through their land digging holes to do surveys, and local governments couldn't provide a whole range of basic services that depend on commercial imagery services.

This is an awful ruling.