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TheNutcracker

(2,104 posts)
Wed Feb 11, 2015, 11:58 AM Feb 2015

How to get your house off Google!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-10/it-s-surprisingly-simple-to-get-your-house-off-google-street-view?cmpid=BBD021015&alcmpid=

Like your privacy? So does Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as we see here.

Just one question: Why does his house vanish into thin air when you drive past it?

At least, that's what happens in Google Street View, the Google Maps feature that lets you switch to a panoramic view of a building or block.




Google will let anyone blur the image of his or her home through a simple process. You find the image you want blurred, click a button to report a problem, and drag a rectangle over the offending photo. Google asks you what type of image you want obscured and offers four options: a face, a license plate, a home, and "Other." The company promises to review requests promptly.

But here's the thing: Chez Zuckerberg, there is no blurring. Instead, Google catapults you past the home like it got sucked into a black hole.

Did the 30-year-old billionaire get special treatment?

Google offered no comment on the space-time anomaly. Facebook didn't respond to requests for comment.

To compile its Street View images, Google dispatches camera-mounted vehicles across entire urban grids, so there's probably a photo of your front door posted online. That bothers some people more than others. Germans, notably, have been wary of Street View, prompting Google to stop collecting images of German streets years ago.

Paul McCartney and Jimmy Page are said to be among the celebrities who have had their houses obscured. Zuckerberg himself became real estate blog fodder last fall, when Street View photographers documented construction work on his San Francisco pied-à-terre.

If you're thinking of filing for a blur, though, note this warning from Google: "Once we apply blurring to an image, it is permanent."
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Just took care of mine! I'm on a corner, so I had to do it twice for two home shots!
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How to get your house off Google! (Original Post) TheNutcracker Feb 2015 OP
Wouldn't that call more attention to a house? A blurred house, I mean--not a house that just MADem Feb 2015 #1
This truly is sharp_stick Feb 2015 #2
They have a really old picture of our farm fasttense Feb 2015 #3

MADem

(135,425 posts)
1. Wouldn't that call more attention to a house? A blurred house, I mean--not a house that just
Wed Feb 11, 2015, 12:10 PM
Feb 2015

disappears?

And when it comes time to sell the place, all those buyers going to google to lazily check out the property before bothering to get up off their behinds and actually put real eyes on it will wonder...why is it blurred? Was it a crime scene? Was the person living there in trouble with organized crime? Hmmmmmmmmm?

The inability of a new owner to "unblur" the image if they want to be able to give photographic directions to their home is problematic, I think...some people--like, say, someone operating a business out of their home--have reason to want their building unblurred, and it doesn't look like that is possible if a previous owner has applied the feature.

sharp_stick

(14,400 posts)
2. This truly is
Wed Feb 11, 2015, 12:41 PM
Feb 2015

a case of I really don't care.

People drive past my house all the time, they can find a picture of it on the city website when looking up tax information.

The nice thing about street view is that they can see evidence of the nice new roof between drive by's.

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