{"id":445510,"date":"2022-05-23T22:01:25","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T20:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=445510"},"modified":"2022-05-23T22:04:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T20:04:11","slug":"how-to-hide-your-house-on-google-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/445510-how-to-hide-your-house-on-google-maps.html","title":{"rendered":"How to hide your house on Google Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Popular Science recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/diy\/hide-home-map-apps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>published an article<\/strong><\/a> explaining how people can hide their home addresses and other personally-identifiable information on the world&#8217;s most popular map apps.<\/p>\n<p>Google Maps offers Streetview, a street-level application that lets users view images of numerous addresses across the globe.<\/p>\n<p>The company captures these images using a 360-degree camera that is carried on foot or fitted to cars, bicycles, and boats.<\/p>\n<p>While very useful when it comes to navigating to areas you have never been before, some people might feel it encroaches on their privacy.<\/p>\n<p>For these users, Google offers a &#8220;Report Inappropriate Street View&#8221; feature, which can blur parts of the images on the platform to hide hit from prying eyes.<\/p>\n<p>The feature is particularly useful for well-known individuals who might face a greater risk of being doxxed.<\/p>\n<p>To blur your house or other personally identifiable information you&#8217;ve spotted on Google Maps, follow the steps below:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Open the Google Maps apps on your phone or the web.<\/li>\n<li>Type in your address and search for it.<\/li>\n<li>Click the image of your house or other building.<\/li>\n<li>Switch to Street View mode.<\/li>\n<li>Select the three-dot menu on the top right (mobile app) or top right (web).<\/li>\n<li>Choose &#8220;Report a problem&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>From here, Google will provide you with a form to fill out and submit to confirm what area of the image you would like to be blurred, as well as what content will be blurred.<\/p>\n<p>A screenshot of the form is shown below.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Google-Maps-Streetview-blur--e1653294461629.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-445534 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Google-Maps-Streetview-blur--e1653294461629-529x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Google-Maps-Streetview-blur--e1653294461629-529x533.jpg 529w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Google-Maps-Streetview-blur--e1653294461629-397x400.jpg 397w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Google-Maps-Streetview-blur--e1653294461629-768x774.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Google-Maps-Streetview-blur--e1653294461629-1524x1536.jpg 1524w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Google-Maps-Streetview-blur--e1653294461629-1200x1209.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Google-Maps-Streetview-blur--e1653294461629.jpg 1914w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Google might follow up with an email asking for further information for processing the request.<\/p>\n<p>Importantly, Google says the blur action cannot be reversed.<\/p>\n<p>As explained in the form, the feature can also be used for blurring a car&#8217;s licence plate number or people&#8217;s faces.<\/p>\n<p>One celebrity who made use of the feature is stand-up comedian Jack Whitehall, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TlBLL9H2uRg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>captured in an awkward moment smoking<\/strong><\/a> marijuana in a street in Amsterdam at the exact moment a Google Streetview car happened to pass by.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Other map apps<\/h3>\n<p>Two other popular map apps that include similar street-level information are Apple Maps and Bing Maps.<\/p>\n<p>Apple&#8217;s version is called Look Around and can be accessed by dropping a pin on a map in Apple Maps or by searching for an address.<\/p>\n<p>Popular Science explained there is currently no way to request your address or information be hidden on Look Around within the app itself.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, you have to send an email with your request to mapsimagecollection@apple.com.<\/p>\n<p>To request your home be hidden on Bing Maps&#8217; StreetSide, do the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Open Bing Maps on the web or the desktop app for Windows.<\/li>\n<li>Select the map view button in the top right corner (If not available, your area is not covered and you don&#8217;t have to worry).<\/li>\n<li>Select StreetSide.<\/li>\n<li>Click on a blue line on the map near your address.<\/li>\n<li>Select &#8220;Report a privacy concern with this image&#8221; on the bottom left on the web or &#8220;Report a problem&#8221; on the bottom right on the app.<\/li>\n<li>Fill out the form as instructed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/444710-what-south-africans-can-do-to-protect-themselves-after-huge-data-leaks-bad-news-from-a-hacker.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">What South Africans can do to protect themselves after huge data leaks \u2014 bad news from a hacker<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google, Apple, and Microsoft allow users to blur their home addresses and other personally identifiable features on their map apps. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":445536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[12467,78526,78508,78524,2272,2270],"class_list":["post-445510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-apple-maps","tag-apple-maps-look-around","tag-bing-maps","tag-bing-maps-streetside","tag-google-maps","tag-google-street-view"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445620,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445510\/revisions\/445620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}