I love Google Maps and satellite technology and GPS imaging and all that. What I am not crazy about is a camera-laden car rolling by my house every couple years and snapping pictures.
What if my lawn isn’t mowed? What if my kids are in the front yard playing? What if I’m weed trimming in a Cowardly Lion costume? These are real world problems, folks.
All joking aside, after five years of navigating social media semi-professionally, I know how many crazies are out there, and I don’t want the most industrious ones finding my front door in seconds.
All right. Sixty seconds. Before we start, you A.) Need to make sure you are only blocking YOUR house and not a neighbor’s. Google will know if you’re blurring houses for amusement. B.) Be sure you want to do this. It takes a long time to unblur the blurring and involves contacting Google directly.
Ready? GO!
1. Go to Google Maps.
2. Type in your home address and hit the little magnifying glass, aka search. For this example, I am using 7244 S Prairie Ave, Chicago, IL 60619— Al Capone’s former Chicago home.
3. In the top right you should have an image of your home on Google Street View. Click that. If there’s no image, congratulations, Google hasn’t sniffed out your home yet.
4. In the Street View Image, you’ll see a small black box in the top-center of the image. See those three stacked dots to the right of the address? Click them. Then click “Report a Problem”
5. Another window should popup titled “Report Inappropriate Street View.” Here, position the square until it completely surrounds your home’s image. This is the area Google will blur.
6. Below the image, you ‘ll see a section that says “Why are you reporting this image?” Obviously, if it’s your home, you click “My home.”
7. In the form box, it will ask you to identify the home in writing as well. Here, you only need to include the address, your name, and a short physical description of the house. It will also remind that blurring a home is permanent.
8. Once you fill that out, scroll to the bottom and type your email address. Then click on the “I’m not a robot” identifier.
9. Submit. The next page confirms your request and lets you know the object will be blurred within 24 hours.
10. Sit back and enjoy a little more personal privacy.
