The private city of North Oaks, Minnesota -- home to more than 4,500 people -- has demanded that Google remove all images of their community from the company's Street View feature.
For those new to the idea,
Street View is an interesting little gadget that is part of Google Maps. It allows users to see images of the area surrounding many streets throughout the United States.
North Oaks, however, will not be one of the areas you are able to view.
In January, the North Oaks City Council sent a letter to Google requesting that the images of their city be removed from the site and the files destroyed. Otherwise, they would cite Google for a violation of the city's trespassing ordinance.
The images were removed shortly after Google received the letter.
According to
StarTribune.com:
North Oaks officials stressed that they needed to enforce the city's law against trespassing, whether it be a motorist who isn't aware of the rules or the Internet search engine behemoth.
Why is it that the city is so picky about their roads? Well its really quite simple: They are all privately owned.
The
North Oaks website says that "Approximately 4500 residents call North Oaks home. Because residents' properties extend to halfway across the road, all residential roads in the City are private and for the use of North Oaks residents and their invited guests only."
The site also points out that "The City owns no property. With residents owning the roads, the North Oaks Home Owners' Association owns the park and recreation areas and trails throughout the City."
There have been issues in the past where people became angry that Street View captured an image of their license plate, or caught them coming out of a strip club, but in these cases the incidents occurred when the pictures were taken from public roads. Nothing could be done because Google was within their rights in these instances.
The case of North Oaks, however, is different because it is a completely privately run city.
This just goes to show how privacy issues can be handled much better when private property is involved as opposed to communal property. It is also interesting to see that a city of 4,500 people can pay for roads without having a government involved.
