Bing’s Streetside Already Facing Objections In Germany

Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after announcing plans to operate its Streetside map/photo service in Germany, Microsoft is already dealing with its first governmental objection.

Thomas Kranig, head of the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection, has issued a statement (in German; here’s a Google translation to English) giving objections to Bing’s plans for letting residents opt-out of Streetside photography.

In short, Kranig says Bing should allow residents to opt-out before any photographs are published online. Bing’s plan is to publish the photographs first and then allow residents to request image blocking. Bing says it should take no more than two days for such requests to be processed and the images to be blurred.

There’s already a website (German) which explains what Streetside is, lists where the Streetside cars will be driving and photographing and — Microsoft says — that’s also where residents will eventually be able to request to have images blurred.

In some German news articles, Kranig is quoted as saying the two sides will continue to negotiate on this issue; in another article, he seems to be threatening to ban Streetside and let German courts decide the matter.