It's been an ongoing legal battle, but it's still legal to take pictures in public places and publish them, much as homeland security would like to prevent it. You'd better build a pretty big wall if you don't want anyone to see your house-- with a roof if you'd like to avoid aerial or satellite images.

Probably also shown on Zillow, Trulia and Google maps with whatever photos were included in the listing. Or is this new construction? Not trying to minimize your concern. It truly is shocking how much information is out there on individuals these days.

Perfectly legal. Anyone anywhere can access Google Maps images of your home. Or they can stand on the street and take as many photos as they want. And publish those photos, for whatever accurate story they wish to run.

Now if they were doing a story on pedophiles and showed a picture of your home and address, you might have an issue. Unless the issue was the public sex offender registry that had listed someone next door as being an offender, and they were just showing the neighborhood as a whole.

This happens in many locations. Deed records are public records and today many county assessor's offices also have pictures of homes online with the assessment records. Some even have the assessor's rough sketches of the floor plans. Deed records, mortgages, liens, etc. are also on line in most jurisdictions. Frankly, I don't expect that the newspaper went out and took a picture of your home, instead it either got it from the county's website or a prior listing. I think our paper uses the assessor's photo for transfers.

It doesn't sound like you have much recourse. I watch yard crashers and desperate landscape a lot, and there on TV for the world to see are many addresses. One was here in California, I recall, and I thought "I know right where that is." And now I know what the owners look like. If I had evil intentions, it wouldn't be hard to catch that pretty girl alone......... I don't think those addresses or street names should be made public either. For a TV show, they must agree to it, but you didn't ask for publicity. Sad.

Not a big deal imho. Our town's assessor has all that and more in their data files open to the public. What the sale price of the house was and when it sold. Names of seller/buyer, floor plan, number of bedrooms and baths, type of heating, picture of the home, the whole shebang, along with the assessed priced. Just not a big deal to me. Burglars will enter the home that gives them the least amount of trouble. Easiest entry. Don't make it easy for them. NancyLouise

I find that strange to show the photo of your house. Do you live in a small town or was it a slow news week?

With newspapers across the country downsizing due to loss of subscribers it seems a waste of news space. The internet has changed the way some people read the news.

Every town I have ever lived in has deed transfers on a weekly basis published in the newspaper. I have never seen a photo included before, but as mojo replied it most likely came from the tax records. Tax records contain an abundance of information and depending where one lives can be accessed freely, I do know in Maine one must pay to access, but in NC they are free.

Well, the Washingtonian magazine has a section with recent sales, including pictures and information about buyers and sellers. Something like this: "Sold: x dollars, listed: x dollars, days on market, details of house, like number of bedrooms, wine cellar, ...., Who: bought by Joe Doe, a lawyer at Lanham Law Offices, and Mary Doe, an attorney known for representing whistleblowers. Sometimes same info about sellers.

Does anybody read the newspaper any more? (I will admit that I do need my Sunday paper)

Your concern is misplaced. Burglars don't peruse newspapers and break into houses that have a snapshot of the front of the house displayed.
I can walk down any street in the world and look at the front of a house. Just because it's in a newspaper doesn't make it any more tempting to break into unless the article accompanying it described how a half a million dollars worth of uncut diamonds was stored under the loose baseboard on the right side of the kitchen entrance.

Our newspaper also has a section with pictures of homes, sale prices, sellers names and buyers names. All public record information. And I read the paper every day, after sitting in front of a computer screen all day at work, it's my nightly relaxation period, with a glass of wine of course!