End of the road in North Oaks, MN
Google removed an entire town from StreetView after the town sent a letter asking to be removed. The small town of North Oaks, MN (pop. 4500), just outside of St. Paul, didn’t want folks trespassing on their private streets (the residents own the streets), even via the internet. Google obliged. Good on ya, Google. (Google removes images if people request it. In response to privacy group concerns, they are also working on a face-blurring technology for Street View.)
This may not mean much to most folks but it speaks volumes to me about what the net ought to be, not what it is becoming— a transparent trespass on individual rights, including the right to privacy (anonymity) and property rights, in favor of some greater group “right to know everything about everything and everybody”. When I was growing up, the fear was of the government becoming the all-knowing, all-seeing Big Brother. Turns out Big Brother is us.
Sources: Minneapolis Star Tribune. (read the comments , 155 of them), CNet (60 comments)
Technorati Tags: google maps, google street view, private property, legal
