Google Maps Lets You Blur Your Home. Here's Why You Should

[Michie]

Protect your family's privacy by blurring your home on Google Maps.

If you've ever used the Street View feature in Google Maps, you know that you can enter pretty much any address and check out a recent image of that location, whether it's a business, government building or residence. It's useful for knowing what building or landmark to look for when you arrive, but Street View also makes it easier for stalkers or criminals to plan their way inside your home.

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Street View gives anyone a free ticket to examine your home over the internet -- maybe they want to look for any cameras or even find a side window to pry open. And sure, anyone can walk or drive by your home and do this in person, but Google Maps makes this process much simpler. Anyone with a phone or computer can do it.

Continued below.

Google Maps Lets You Blur Your Home. Here's Why You Should

Protect your family's privacy by blurring your home on Google Maps.

www.cnet.com

 

[Gnarwhal]

Ha! I actually did this years and years ago not really for any reason other than I just did it because I'm a privacy nerd and I didn't like the idea of people doxxing me or tracking me down somehow. I think I had them blur it out 8-10 years ago now, crazy how time flies! But this is all people would see if they knew my address and tried to see what it looks like:

 

[prodromos]

Me personally, if I was the kind of person who would be scoping out potential targets on Goofle Maps, seeing a blurred out property would likely increase my interest in that property, but that is probably just because I am evil and depraved. It is probably effective on the thieves that aren't evil and depraved.

 

[Landon Caeli]

If I were a few notches eviler, I would start blurring out other people's houses, and maybe some businesses too... Maybe blurr out the whole town!

 

[eastcoast_bsc]

Ha! I actually did this years and years ago not really for any reason other than I just did it because I'm a privacy nerd and I didn't like the idea of people doxxing me or tracking me down somehow. I think I had them blur it out 8-10 years ago now, crazy how time flies! But this is all people would see if they knew my address and tried to see what it looks like:View attachment 327291

Make sure to disable geo location on any photos also.

 

[Wolseley]

I have four huge dogs in this house, the smallest of which is 70 pounds. When I am away, they are loose in the house. Anybody trying to get inside will be met by them, and the result would not be pretty.

And if I am home, if somebody tries to break in, I have.....oh, let's say more than one and less than a hundred firearms, extensive supplies of ammunition for them all, and I know how to use each and every one of them.

Not that I would want to employ them in a lethal manner, you understand; but even the Vatican says that every human being has the right to self-defense:

"The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one's own life; and the killing of the aggressor....the one is intended, the other is not." (#2263, cit. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, 64, 7)

 

[Lady Bug]

I don't see how it makes much difference. After all, viewers can easily know what your house is by looking at the context.

 

[Bob Crowley]

I have four huge dogs in this house, the smallest of which is 70 pounds. When I am away, they are loose in the house. Anybody trying to get inside will be met by them, and the result would not be pretty.

And if I am home, if somebody tries to break in, I have.....oh, let's say more than one and less than a hundred firearms, extensive supplies of ammunition for them all, and I know how to use each and every one of them.

Not that I would want to employ them in a lethal manner, you understand; but even the Vatican says that every human being has the right to self-defense:

If I ever come to your place for afternoon tea, I'll bring a club and a bulletproof vest!

 

[Bob Crowley]

I'm not overly consciou

s of privacy, although I don't go round trying draw attention to myself.

I looked up my home address in street view, and it's several years out of date. The house is still the same construction, but the front gardens and fence are long gone.

Ditto for the home where I grew up. I think it was demolished last year, and a new house has gone up on the same property. But it still shows the old home on Google maps.

I can't see the point to be honest. If criminals want to scope out the house, all they have to do is sit in a car for a while and then go for a walk.

When I was putting up the front fence with another bloke, he quipped "It will keep the honest people out!"

And that's about it too. At one point we had neighbours who left a lot to be desired. One day my wife was home when a bloke jumped the front fence and then jumped the neighbour's fence with what appeared to be a gun to my wife, but she wasn's sure.

We know they had a drive by shooting at one stage, but that was some years ago. They've long moved out and that house is now on it's second set of owners after them.

Which goes to show the truth of the old adage about the quality of neighbours determining the quality of life.

PS - I don't know why but somehow my post image was incorporated into the post. I suppose at least Wolseley can use it for target practice!

PPS - The reason my wife wasn't sure if it was a gun in the bloke's hand or not was that he had it wrapped in a towel or something similar. It had a similar shape to a gun, but she couldn't be sure.

 

[chevyontheriver]

I'm not overly consciou

s of privacy, although I don't go round trying draw attention to myself.

I looked up my home address in street view, and it's several years out of date. The house is still the same construction, but the front gardens and fence are long gone.

Ditto for the home where I grew up. I think it was demolished last year, and a new house has gone up on the same property. But it still shows the old home on Google maps.

I can't see the point to be honest. If criminals want to scope out the house, all they have to do is sit in a car for a while and then go for a walk.

When I was putting up the front fence with another bloke, he quipped "It will keep the honest people out!"

And that's about it too. At one point we had neighbours who left a lot to be desired. One day my wife was home when a bloke jumped the front fence and then jumped the neighbour's fence with what appeared to be a gun to my wife, but she wasn's sure.

We know they had a drive by shooting at one stage, but that was some years ago. They've long moved out and that house is now on it's second set of owners after them.

Which goes to show the truth of the old adage about the quality of neighbours determining the quality of life.

PS - I don't know why but somehow my post image was incorporated into the post. I suppose at least Wolseley can use it for target practice!

The Google street view of my house has an open garage and some semi-identifiable things in it. But that was from 2017 and I bought the house in 2020. So it's old owner's things. I had it blurred. I'm a bit happier now. Only a bit.

About blokes who hop fences, a year ago some 'bloke' got into my neighbor's yard and was removing a bicycle. I stupidly ran out to confront him, not thinking for a moment about my safety. He said the bicycle was his and that he was just picking it up. An obvious lie. I asked him for identification. He said he had none but would go and get it and return. Surprisingly he never returned. We put up a six foot fence that summer.

 

[Wolseley]

If I ever come to your place for afternoon tea, I'll bring a club and a bulletproof vest!

You would be perfectly welcome here, my dear fellow, and I would be delighted to have you. In any event, you wouldn't be trying to break in, so none of the defensive measures above would apply.