Google is pushing back against regulators who have demanded access to the 600GB of WiFi payload data the company accidentally collected through its Street View cars. Officials in both Germany and Hong Kong rushed to ask for the data after Google announced plans to destroy it, but Google has yet to heed their requests, saying that it needs more time to evaluate the legal ramifications of turning the data over.

"As granting access to payload data creates legal challenges in Germany which we need to review, we are continuing to discuss the appropriate legal and logistical process for making the data available," Google spokesperson Peter Barron told the New York Times.

Essentially, the company believes Germany's own privacy laws may prevent Google from turning the data over—after all, part of the reason for the law is to protect citizens from the government. The reasons Google blew off a Monday deadline given by Hong Kong privacy commissioner Roderick B. Woo were less clear—Google didn't make any statements related to Hong Kong—but it's likely that they are similar.

Officials from both countries are understandably frustrated with Google's stance; Hamburg data protection supervisor Johannes Caspar said there was "no apparent reason" for Google to withhold the data, while Woo accused Google of being insincere.

Google is stuck between a rock and a hard place with this one, and the furor over the data keeps growing. Google doesn't just have Germany and Hong Kong on its back either—certain members of Congress want to know what the FTC is doing to look into the situation, and a class-action lawsuit has been filed against Google, too. Simply deleting the data certainly seems like the most painless way out for all involved—Google has already done exactly this for data collected in Denmark, Ireland, and Austria—but it's clear that several countries want to know exactly what information Google collected on its citizens before wholesale deletions can take place.

Update: A US District Judge in Oregon has ordered Google to turn over copies of the data it collected within 10 days.