YouTuber captures 'forbidden' footage of only city in America that isn't on Google Street View
The creator found a loophole to reveal the private city
A YouTuber captured 'forbidden' footage of the only city in America missing from Google Street View.
Google Maps has become our go-to for navigation and getting a preview of destinations before you visit, but there's one American city you'll never find on the app.
North Oaks is a city in Minnesota that remains hidden from Google's Street View. It also happens to be the wealthiest city in the state. In fact, a report from the New York Post found that a five-bedroom, seven-bathroom home at 16 Evergreen Road was on the market last year for nearly $3.5 million.
However, one creative YouTuber figured out how to document this secretive community for the rest of us who can't experience it firsthand.
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"I tried to map it myself because technically anyone can upload 360 photosphere photos to Google Maps," he described in his YouTube Short.
"But the second I got there, I realised why Google almost got sued by the town."
So what keeps Google's cameras out of this Minnesota city?
Well, according to YouTuber Christheproducer: "Every entrance in the city is marked 'No Trespassing'," adding that there are cameras and licence plate readers to catch those that attempt entry. This makes it impossible for Google's mapping vehicles to document the streets without technically trespassing.
Although they tried back in 2008, before the city council of North Oaks, Minnesota, threatened the tech giant with legal action, demanding the removal of Street View imagery.
"In North Oaks, your property line doesn't go to the end of the curb," Chris explained. "It goes all the way into the centre of the road, leaving behind no public roadways."
Determined to map the area himself, Chris developed a clever solution that exploited a legal loophole. He knew that while the ground was restricted, the airspace worked under different rules.
"According to the FAA, the airspace above North Oaks is unrestricted," he noted. "And to be clear, I didn't want to be sued myself, so I studied for a few hours and went to take the Part 107 drone pilot test," which he passed surprisingly quickly.
Describing his plan, Chris said: "Then, I launched a drone from the public streets that border the city and took 360 photos from a camera dangling beneath the drone along every road to map the entire city from above.
"And now Google Maps in the United States is complete."
The YouTube Short exploded, garnering over 18 million views, and many viewers were shocked by the level of privacy in the city.
"The fact that a whole city is privatized is sooo dystopian wtf," one YouTube viewer wrote.
"imagine buying the houses at the enterance and then blocking off the resst of the city," another suggested.
"Bro really said if I can't have privacy, neither can you," someone else joked.