North Oaks tells Google Maps: Keep out - we mean it
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.”
Street View has been delayed coming to Canada because it is in violation of our privacy laws, but we’re not the only ones who wonder about its limits. On the other hand, some people love tracking interesting street views.
- Anne
You will be deeply amused to know that my father and stepmother live here, and I grew up in the ungated suburb surrounding North Oaks.
They used to have real gates until the early 1980s, I think, when they were crashed. Now there’s just a sweet little house.
Ha! I knew I should have asked you about this!