Google Maps Street View changed the game for digital exploration: Anywhere Google’s cameras have been, you can check out for yourself, without ever needing to leave your house. Of course, if you’re uncomfortable with your house appearing on Street View, you don’t need to sit back and let the other explorers of the internet spy on your home. Whether you’re famous, or you just value your privacy, Google lets you blur your house on Street View, although it isn’t obvious how to do so.
A word of warning before proceeding: Requesting Google to blur your house on Street View is permanent. The company will not reverse this censorship once it goes through, so make sure you really want to blur your house before going through with the request. In addition, please only ask Google to blur your house: If you do it to someone else’s house, they won’t be able to undo the blur either.
Step one: Pull up your house on Google Maps. You can simply type and enter your address into the search bar, then click on the Street View image that appears at the bottom of the left-hand menu. Alternatively, you can click the icon of the person in the bottom-right corner of the window to activate Street View, then click on your part of the street to load up your home.
Either way, once you have your house pulled up on Street View, click the three dots next to the address, then choose Report a problem. Alternatively, you can click the Report a problem button in the bottom-right corner of the Street View window. This will pull up Google Maps’ “Report Inappropriate Street View” form for your specific address. If for some reason the address or the image are not of your home, restart the process so you don’t blur someone else’s house.
Here, you can adjust the exact amount of blur you want to add to the image. You can zoom in and out with the + and – buttons to control the window size for the blur, or drag around the map to adjust the location of the window.
Below this, you’ll need to choose what element of the photo you want to blur. You can choose from a face, a car/license plate, or a “different object,” but in this case, choose My home. You can skip over the “Report image quality” section. Next, enter your email address, as Google requires you to attach it to your request, then complete the reCAPTCHA to prove you’re not a robot. We don’t want ChatGPT blurring all our homes, after all.
Full disclosure: This is not my house.
Credit: Jake Peterson
There’s no telling exactly how long this process will take, or if Google will contact you at the email address you provided for more information. But assuming everything is working as intended, Google will eventually blur your home from Street View.
