Courtesy Photo/Image A Google Maps vehicle similar to the one seen in North Platte Thursday.

A Google Maps “Street View” vehicle was spotted on Fourth Street in North Platte Thursday afternoon.

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Vehicles like the one seen have a pole mounted to the roof of the car, to which camera equipment is affixed. The camera records 360-degree images as the vehicle travels down the road.

Questions about privacy violation have dogged the “Street View” project since 2007. Other groups are concerned about some of the images that have been captured for the project, including nude sunbathers and possible drug deals.

Google is on record as countering that their cameras don’t do anything that television news crews don’t do on a regular basis, and that the images recorded are a part of normal life.

They also stipulate procedures are in place to report and remove offensive images.

United States law generally holds that there is no expectation of privacy in a public place, freeing Google (and TV stations) to record images from public property, including streets.

Google now utilizes computer technology that blurs faces captured by their cameras.

The vehicle spotted in North Platte did not have a camera deployed. The end of the pole was wrapped in a tarpaulin, likely due to the weather.

According to Google, North Platte has already been completely mapped by “Street View” cars, along with Lincoln, Omaha, Grand Island, Hastings, and Fremont. That list may be incomplete, and Google boasts of continually adding new communities.