What Does Google Maps Have Against the Eiler Larsen Statue?

The other day while Laguna Beach Patch was cruising up Coast Highway, top down, wind sweeping through our long, flowing locks—alright, we were at home in our underwear playing around with Google Maps in Street View mode—we happened to notice the Eiler Larsen statue at the Brooks Street intersection and noticed that something was a little ... off.

A couple of clicks and zooms later, our suspicions proved correct: old Eiler's face, which for years when he was alive welcomed all who lived, worked and played in Laguna Beach, had been rubbed out.

Why would Google dare defile the mug of Laguna Beach's most beloved citizen?

Turns out a computer did it. Since 2008, Google has been using automated face-blurring technology that employs an algorithm, which searches for faces in the company's image database, then distorts them. Google has said that they've chosen to do this to protect people's privacy.

But ... the privacy of statues? Yup. The Google face-fuzz autobot has also hilariously attacked Las Vegas, among other cities, where it erased the Sphinx statue at the Luxor Hotel and the Statue of Liberty (gasp!) at New York New York.

The other Eiler Larsen statue in front of the restaurant, however, remains unmolested. For now!