How to Blur Your House on Google Maps

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Why Blur Your House on Google Maps?

In Google Maps Live Street View, anyone can virtually “drive” to your house and then examine everything about your home from the photos captured by Google. If you want more privacy, you can blur your house on Google Maps.

Images captured by Google for Street View can be used for a number of nefarious purposes, including:

  • Potential thieves can scope out a property for potential security vulnerabilities like high hedges or easy access to upper windows.
  • Businesses looking for potential customers can see if your house needs new windows, doors, or external work to try and target you with their marketing efforts.
  • Snoopy neighbors may try to identify local code violations so they can report you to the local authorities and get you in trouble.

How to Blur Your House on Google Maps

You can tell Google to blur your house so people can’t make out any details about your property from Street View.

Note: Once you request Google blurs your home, keep in mind there’s no reversing the process. After your request is processed, no one will ever be able to see your home or property on Street View in Google Maps again.

  1. Open Google Maps on either a browser or the Google Maps mobile app, and make sure you’re logged into your Google account. Type your home address into the search field. Select the address for your home.
  2. To see Street View’s image of your home, select and hold your mouse pointer on the small yellow human icon at the lower right corner of the map. Drag this icon onto the road in front of your home.
  3. Once you’re in Street View, use the arrow keys to rotate the view so you can see your home right in front of you.

When you drag the human icon onto the map, if you don’t see a blue line on the road in front of your house, that means your road isn’t on Google’s Street View route, and you don’t have to worry about Street View storing any images of your home. You can only drop the human icon onto a road that is highlighted in blue.

  1. Once you have your house in view, select Report a problem at the lower right corner of the screen.
  2. You will see the image from Street View with a small red box at the center. You can rotate the image or zoom in and out to center the box on just your home or entire property. Fill out the form by selecting My home in the Request blurring section. You’ll see a field where you can provide more details so Google can accurately identify what part of the image you want to blur.
  3. Finally, fill out the required email address form, complete the reCAPTCHA verification, and select Submit.

Once you submit this form, you’ll need to wait for Google to review the request and respond. Google may follow up via email to ask for additional information. Or, you may simply receive confirmation that the image you requested has been blurred on Street View. Either way, this is a good approach offered by Google to put your privacy back into your own hands.

Be Safe – Backup Your Data Regularly!

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