Khaberni - After more than 17 years of complete secrecy, the North Oaks neighborhood in Minnesota, known for its billionaire residents and luxurious homes, appeared on Google Maps for the first time, after being hidden from the search engine due to special legal measures of its residents.
American content creator Chris Barr successfully documented the only neighborhood in the United States "deliberately hidden" from Google Maps for nearly two decades, by exploiting legal loopholes and modern technologies to bypass the city's digital protection.
The North Oaks neighborhood is one of the wealthiest areas in the United States, inhabited by a cohort of CEOs and significant wealth, featuring luxurious mansions worth millions of dollars, with streets that are clean and meticulously organized.
Legal battle with Google
The story of North Oaks' disappearance from the digital space started in 2008 when the neighborhood council threatened to sue Google for trespassing on private property after it detected cars photographing the homes.
Google complied with the demands and deleted all images and data, making the city "digitally ghostly," a step described by Google's spokesperson at the time, Eileen Philadelphia, as "extremely rare."
Complex hiding strategies
The neighborhood, one of the wealthiest in the United States with home prices exceeding $3.5 million, relies on a complex technical and security system to maintain privacy.
Despite the absence of physical gates, developers have legally shifted property boundaries to include the streets themselves, making all roads in "North Oaks" privately owned and not public.
At the entrances, advanced surveillance cameras and license plate reading devices are deployed to monitor everyone who enters or exits.
Privacy breach using drones
Chris Barr exploited a legal loophole that while residents own the homes and streets, they do not own the airspace, and obtained an official license to operate a drone (drone) from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
To bypass the ground ban, he posted an advertisement on Craigslist requesting an invitation from one of the residents, and received a response from one of the ladies, which allowed him entry to the West Rec Park garden within the neighborhood.
From there, Barr launched his drone to document the neighborhood streets and lavish mansions, commenting: "Finally, I have completed Google Maps... North Oaks did not ban mapping, but only prohibited ground trespass."
The move sparked anger by the North Oaks Homeowners Association (NOAHA), where chairman Andrew Hopkins stated that the association is considering legal action against Barr.
Conversely, video viewers considered what happened a vivid example of the "Streisand Effect," where attempts to hide it only drew significantly more global attention to the city.
In response, Barr defended his position to the "Daily Mail," saying: "Maps are part of public infrastructure, and having an incomplete map is a disservice to humanity."
Despite Google deleting the images he published after a week, Barr reposted them on his social media accounts, affirming people's right to explore the world from their homes.
It is worth noting that the North Oaks neighborhood, the preferred haven for the richest of Minnesota's wealthy, remained shrouded in mystery to the extent that many residents of the state themselves were unaware of its existence, until Barr revealed it to the world through drone maps.
