If you use Google Maps every day, you probably also use its Street View feature. Street View uses recent street photos, taken by those conspicuous Google cars you’ve probably seen out on the roads, to let you virtually visit locations all over the world, like landmarks and national parks.
It’s really useful if you want to check out the outside of a restaurant or bar before you go there, or for identifying a unit in a building that you’ve never been to before. If you’re driving to someone’s home that you’ve never been to, 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 how Google Maps can help you figure out dinner.
How to blur your home on Google Maps
You’ll need to do this on your computer, as the blurring feature isn’t available in the Google Maps application on iOS or Android. While it is accessible through the web browser on your mobile device, it’s rather difficult to use, so use a trusted web browser on your Mac or PC instead.
Watch this: How to Blur Your Home or an Object in Google Maps
At maps.google.com, enter your home address in the search bar at the top-right, hit return, then click the photo of your home that appears.
Next, you’ll see the Street View of your location….
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