Google Maps, Keep Out

12 June 2008 - 12:00pm

North Oaks, Minnesota is one of a handful of towns pushing back on Google, claiming that their Street View feature is a violation of privacy.

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"The city of 4,500 residents has demanded that Google Maps remove images of North Oaks homes from the website's Street View feature, where any Internet user can glimpse a home from the nearest road.

North Oaks' unique situation, in which the roads are privately owned by the residents and the city enforces a trespassing ordinance, may have made it the first city in the country to request that the online search engine remove images from Google Maps.

"It's not the hoity-toity folks trying to figure out how to keep the world away," said Mayor Thomas Watson. "They really didn't have any authorization to go on private property.""

Source: Star Tribune, Minneapolis-St. Paul, May 31, 2008