Small Town Tells Street View to Get Lost

North Oaks, Minn. is a small town of 4,500 residents. According to its web site, its residential roads are all privately-owned, and because of this unique situation it has requested that Google take down all Street View images of its roads.

"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."

Since the introduction of Google Maps' Street View last spring, the feature has caused controversy in several cities and with the federal government. The Pentagon banned Google Maps from taking any images of military facilities, and a Pittsburgh couple sued the company over images of their home taken from the private road in front of their house.

The North Oaks City Council sent a letter to Google in January asking the company to remove the images and destroy the files or possibly be cited for violating the city's trespassing ordinance.

BTW, if you want to report what you consider to be infringing Street View images of your own property, it's as simple as clicking a link, and selecting "This image infringes on my privacy."
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