A couple of weeks ago Search Engine Journal covered the controversy behind Google StreetView and their Google Armada trespassing on private property and filming homes and the happenings on such property despite obvious no trespassing postings.
The story was about a small St. Paul Minnesota suburb named North Oaks, which is a private city of 4,500. In North Oaks, the community is owned by the residents and the streets are private property. Google Maps ignored the no trespassing ordinance, entered the private property, and then shot the entire community, leading NorthOaks to issue a demand that Google Maps remove images of the homes and locations shot from the private streets from Google Maps StreetView.
In the post, I had mentioned that I too live in a private community, albeit smaller, of 200 or so residents living in condos. Our community has postings on each entrance that state that the land is private property, the lanes are private lanes, there is to be no trespassing, trespassers can be prosecuted and that no businesses or traffic is allowed on the property without the consent of a resident.
At the time of the posting, I had noted that Google was intelligent enough to take warning to the notifications in my community, but over the weekend, I noticed that this was not the case.
Google Invaded My Property!
Google Maps has invaded the privacy of my private community, photographed properties from private lanes, photographed my automobile from private lanes and ignored NO TRESPASSING ordinances which are located throughout the community.
Google Maps has invaded the privacy of all 200 residents in our private community and I have caught Google trespassing!
Here is a video of the footage Google has taken of my private community and proof that they have ignored private property laws.
This is a major issue because Google is ignoring local laws, entering private property across the United States and filming that property without the permission of property owners.
- Why is Google ignoring No Trespassing laws when other businesses are expected to do so?
- Why is Google filming private property and expecting residents to opt-out instead of not trespassing in the first place?
- How long is it going to take for Google to risk the well being of their StreetView drivers? Is it going to wait until one is restrained by a property owner?
- Not every private property owner in the country is going to do a search for their property on Google Maps, so Google is getting away with a lot of this trespassing without the knowledge of owners.
- Private property is marked Private for a reason, be it children or dogs or residents looking for peace and quiet, is it Google’s agenda to break the privacy rights of these residents?
I will be sharing this documented invasion of privacy with the other owners in my community who will vote on whether or not to take action against Google and other similar services, it’s my responsibility to do so. Hopefully we’ll have an update next week.
