Google Street View accused of trespassing

CNET reports several residents in California's Humboldt County are complaining about Google's Street View service, they say Google violated their privacy and accuse the search giant of trespassing because a Street View driver cruised past two "no trespassing" signs on a private road to collect images of a home:

The service, which gives Web users a driver's perspective of hundreds of cities around the world, has raised the ire of residents who say the images are an invasion of their privacy. Now residents in California's Humboldt County are complaining that the drivers who are hired to collect the images are disregarding private property signs and driving up private roads.

In an episode reported recently by the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, a Street View driver cruised past two "no trespassing" signs to collect images of a residence that is 1,200 feet from the public road.

"It isn't just a privacy issue; it is a trespassing issue, with their own photos as evidence," resident Betty Webb told the newspaper. "They really went off the track to get to our address."

Webb's experience apparently is not an isolated incident: the newspaper used digital maps provided by the county of Sonoma and found Google had photographed along more than 100 private roads.

Google responded that they have the right to photograph from private roads but that they try to avoid it. Earlier this year the search engine stated that complete privacy does not exist with today's satellite-image technology.