In the 17-odd years since Google Maps introduced Street View, the service has photographed more than 10 million miles of public streets and the buildings on them. You can see everything from a first-person look at the Eiffel Tower to the pigeon people of Tokyo. There are a lot of great uses for Street View — it lets you see the exterior of a restaurant or bar before you visit, or identify a unit in a building that you’ve never been to.
If you’re driving to an unfamiliar home, you can check out whether you’ve got the right place using Street View when you arrive. Unfortunately, for all its benefits, Street View can also be used as a tool for stalkers and criminals. It gives anyone a free ticket to examine parts of your home without actually being there in person. Sure, someone could simply walk or drive by your home and scope out where you live, but Google Maps lets them do it easily — from their couch. Anyone with a phone or computer can do it.
Fortunately, there’s a simple way to blur your home on Google Maps and help prevent others from seeing too many details of where you live. Here’s how to do it. For more, here’s how to discover the past with Google Maps and essential Google Maps tips for traveling.
- Google Maps tem mais de 10 milhões de milhas de ruas públicas fotografadas pelo Street View.
- Street View pode ser usado para propósitos benéficos, mas também pode ser usado por stalkers e criminosos.
- Existe uma maneira simples de desfocar sua casa no Google Maps para proteger sua privacidade.
You’ll need to do this on your computer — the blurring feature isn’t available in the Google Maps application on iOS or Android. It is accessible through the web browser on your mobile device, but it’s rather difficult to use, so your best choice is a trusted web browser on your Mac or PC instead.