“You are at liberty to look at almost anything on Google. But do not try to steal a look of the homes in the private community of North Oaks. North Oaks wants privacy.”
North Oaks, Minn., — Google Maps Street View, Google’s popular panoramic street-viewing feature, received several complaints from a small town in Minnesota, north of St. Paul suburb called North Oaks, with private roads enforces its trespassing ordinance and Google Maps is no exception, may be the first U.S. city to ask that street images be removed.
Google Maps “Street View” features that allow users to see what a certain address or intersection looks like on the ground, but that choice is no longer available in North Oaks after city officials demanded that Google remove the images.
Google Maps Street View characteristic has constantly had a question mark hanging over it in terms of invasion of privacy and civil liberties, but now those accusations have been raised a notch by a whole town in Minnesota telling Google to remove it from the application.
Apparently, North Oaks, a private community of 4,500 residents north of St. Paul, is not too enthusiastic on outsiders footslogging through its’ privately owned streets — even if it is only on the Internet, and the “no trespassing” signs should not have been taken lightly.
“As stated on the city’s Web site, the residents owned the roads, and potential visitors to the city are greeted with a ‘no-trespassing’ sign.”
So, when it came to the notice of city officials that images of residents’ homes could be found on Google Maps, they were really unhappy, they took action.
“It is not the hoity-toity folks trying to figure out how to keep the world away,” said Mayor Thomas Watson. “They really did not have any authorization to go on private property.”
The North Oaks City Council sent the Internet search giant a letter in January demanding that images be removed or threatened to cite the company for violating the city’s trespassing ordinance if it did not remove images and destroy the files.
Google, however, fulfilled the request but was surprised that a whole town had made the request, as the company usually just has to deal with a few individuals who refuse to have their homes featured on the site.
Google spokeswoman Elaine Filadelfo says the company took off the images shortly after receiving the letter. She did not know of any other city in the country that had taken such action.
“This is an extremely extraordinary situation where an entire town has requested to be taken off,” Filadelfo said.
You can still find aerial images of North Oaks homes on sites such as Windows Live Search Maps, but Watson said they would be left alone because city ordinances were not violated to obtain those pictures.
Google is no alien to objections about its Street View service. Not long after the feature launched in May 2007, privacy campaigners criticized Google for displaying photographs that included people’s faces and car license plates. In May, the company announced that it had begun testing face-blurring technology for the service.
Back in April there were similar reports we heard about a couple, aptly named Aaron and Christine Boring, who were suing Google for invasion of privacy after their home in Pittsburgh was featured on Street View despite clear signs that they lived in a private road. It asserts that Google’s “reckless conduct” has “exposed plaintiff’s private information to the public.”
Google Maps’ Street View has brought about its share of controversies and has also drawn some attention from the European Union, which has shown concerns over some privacy issues. EU says that showing detailed images of the streets including the people that are walking there could be against the law in some countries.
The Pentagon as well barred Google Maps from collecting images of military facilities. Images used for the Web site’s feature are collected by drivers in cars with the company’s logo.
Street View is a feature Google contributed to Google maps in 2007, which provides panoramic views in cities across the United States from ground level and offers a brand new experience when it comes to sightseeing. For the time being, the service functions only in the U.S. but is expected to go outside the country as well.