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

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.

It appears that a lot of Germans believe that when you take a picture of them, or their house, the camera is stealing their soul. No judgement, good for them.