Street View Not Welcome in North Oaks
The St. Paul suburb of Minnesota is likely the first U.S. jurisdiction to demand that Google remove all imagery of the community of North Oaks from their online database. Apparently the entire city of 4,500 lives on privately owned roads. A letter demanding the removal of the imagery was sent in January and was complied by Google shortly thereafter. Interestingly, the article cites Ramsey County Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt who stresses that local citizenry understand that “The bottom line is what GIS and what Google is doing are not the same thing,” Reinhardt said. “[Geographic information systems] use aerial photography, but that’s very different than driving up my driveway.”
- North Oaks tells Google Maps: Keep out – we mean it – Star Tribune
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This is a very interesting article. The technology is almost too good when you can zoom from outer space down to the street level and literally look through windows in some cases. I for one say lets just go with it. There’s definitely a fine line when it comes to GIS/ Earth models and the information that they’re capable of displaying and invasion of privacy, but so far I’m OK with Street View. Once Google walks through my front door with a high resolution camera, I’ll have to draw the line.
A very interesting story. I wasn’t aware anyone could stand up to the Google corporation but congrats to North Oaks. As a geographer I love Google earth. Its free and has many interesting layers. I do, however, find streetview to be strange and excessive. The first time I zoomed in on streetview it had the wow factor. Now I find the concept puzzling as to where Google will go next. It is my hope that any more personal actions will be accompanied by the public’s right to opt out. Confine streetview to highways and away from residential streets. We are beginning to know way too much about one another. If knowledge is power I’d rather some people not have info on me. If I want someone to know details of my street I will describe it to them myself.