Google Sued Over Street View

By now you’re probably familiar with Google Street View, the totally neat-o Google Maps add on that allows us to see hilarious street drug deals captured by Google’s roving camera van.

In the Philadelphia area, Google Street View contains most of Center City — with strange gaps, such as the 1500 block of Sansom Street¹– as well as suburbs as far as Bristol, Wilmington and Newark.

Well, enjoy it while you can, suckers! A Pittsburgh couple is suing Google, claiming Street View “violated their privacy, devalued their property and caused them mental suffering.”

Fair enough. But, whoops, Google says apparently you can get your house off Google Street View if you want to, meaning that if this thing is publicized enough a ton of streets will be removed and the tool will be worthless. “There’s no merit to this action,” Google spokesman Larry Yu said. “It is unfortunate litigation was chosen to address the concern because we have visible tools, such as a YouTube video, to help people learn about imagery removal and an easy-to-use process to facilitate image removal.” Still, no one has explained why Google Street View was done in Pittsburgh.

Oh, and that YouTube video? Right here.

¹ They also have my parents’ street, a horseshoe street near Franklin Mills, and don’t have mine, which is in Center City.

Lawsuit Claims Google Maps Violates Privacy [AP/CBS 3]