[Closed] I've just had my house smudged out on Google Street View

Why?

Cos they can see him eating his dinner 😉

Did you live there when the image was taken? Google Earth image of our house is 5yrs old, same with my workplace.

I passed a google streetview car the other day on the M4, hung around near it for a few miles hoping to get in a piccy, Any idea how long they take to upload them ?

Did you live there when the image was taken?

Yep sure did. When I heard it was possible I just thought why have a picture of our property for all to see. The street fair enough but not the house. I didn't think Google would do it to be honest but the house now sticks out like a sore thumb as it's the only one that is smudged out.
A while back some "roofers" knocked on the door when I was at work and by the time my mum had answered one of them had climbed onto the roof via the garage. This was before I had it smudged out.

why have a picture of our property for all to see.

You realise the same view is available to anyone standing outside it, yes?

A while back some "roofers" knocked on the door when I was at work and by the time my mum had answered one of them had climbed onto the roof via the garage. This was before I had it smudged out.

You did well there, it's a well known fact that before dodgy tradesmen target a house that they're standing outside, they look up the property on Google maps to see if it's smudged out or not. Criminals only knock on the doors of unsmudged houses.

Wouldn't smudging it out draw more attention to it?

Of course, you can't smudge it out in real life - so what was the point?

Or will people on the street be obliged to wear blinkers when they pass.

Did you not consider the prospect that now all those types of folk, those who case out a place via street view, will want to know what's in the smudged out house?

Shame. if I'm looking to buy a house I normally streetview it to get a feel for if the estate agent photos do it justice/have a bit of artistic licence. I guess folks like me will just move on and look at another if yours ever comes up for sale.

When I streetview my parent's house it has my father standing on the doorstep. It's quite nice to see him there as he's been dead a couple of years.

Vaseline on the eyeballs like Star Wars lenses?

When I streetview my parent's house it has my father standing on the doorstep. It's quite nice to see him there as he's been dead a couple of years.

This is nice.

Digressing from thread but did you read that story about the kid and his games console? He has a racing car game and his deceased father is the 'ghost car' (the fastest time on the track). One day head beat the ghost car but stopped before the finish line so his dad would always be there.

When I streetview my parent's house it has my father standing on the doorstep. It's quite nice to see him there as he's been dead a couple of years.

how cool is that! 🙂

in the limited bits of Germany that got Streetviewed, loads of people got their houses smudged out.

so people went out with a digital camera and took higher resolution photos of smudged out houses and added them to Panoramio.

so all you do is hit the "photos" button in Google Maps to see an even better image than the streetview car took.

I'm sure there are some that think it's like a live webcam in to their house/driveway.

A colleague got his house smudged out because you could see his wife in the bedroom window. In just a towel.

Think it only occurred to him to do it after the reaction in the office after he announced the fact 8)

in the limited bits of Germany that got Streetviewed, loads of people got their houses smudged out.
so people went out with a digital camera and took higher resolution photos of smudged out houses and added them to Panoramio.

I've just built a wall of frosted glass in front of my house - that'll learn 'em!

Presuming the OP is the first in his street to have his house obscured, I guess most of the rest will follow promptly.

Hmmm, interesting that you can get Google to do this OP but still I can't figure out quite what the point of having your home smudged on street view is.

It's not like going ex directory with your phone line, and dodgy types will still be able to work out that the blur between No.42 and No.46 is probably No.44 so how have you cunningly evaded them exactly?

If anything the one blurred property on the street will pique people's interest not less... Shirley?

and if it's a housing estate, then #44 probably looks exactly like #42 and #46 too, other than the door colour and the car parked out front

I'm stood outside ours unloading flatpack shed from the roof of my old car (so at least 5 years old).
Should I be ‘smudging'?
Introduced myself to a visitor the other day, and she replied "I know, I recognise you from Google streetview"
Could have been a lucky bluff though...........
Paranoia approaching..........

I really can't see the point, as the only people looking at your house on StreetView who know who's house it is are people who actually know who lives there, anyone else sees a completely anonymous house along with a bunch of anonymous houses.
There is a friend of mine who lives in March, Cambridgeshire, I've visited her house, stayed there, in fact, but when I look on StreetView I'm damned if I can be sure which house in the street is hers.
Face it, OP, you are nowhere near as famous as you might like to think you are, in fact, like pretty much all of us, nobody cares who you are or where you live.

Had the missus smudged out last week as they'd captured her walking home from the kid's school. Was hoping they'd do a professional hit but they just blurred her image.

When I heard it was possible I just thought why have a picture of our property for all to see.

I'm in a neighbourhood watch area so any suspicious rogue spending more time outside the house, working out a means of accessing the property, is more likely to be spotted than if they did most of their scoping out online.
I don't think most people are aware this is possible. Most don't care whether it's possible. I am glad it is so why not? And no I know I'm not famous but I don't like the fact it's on Street View without my permission. I'll definately not be installing CCTV like some people do.
If anyone needs to find the house then they'll need to resort to old skool methods. There's a big house number on the front door.

Well I dunno about your house, but I doubt a rogue would spend long scoping out my house. They'd nip over the back fence and smash a window. Plus the front view reveals nothing unusual anyway - a door and some windows, same as most people.

Do you live in a castle or some kind of secure complex?

Well that was easy!

A lot of completely pointless things are easy.

That's not a reason to do them though.

ma and pa used to live in phuket til recently. creatures of habit, theyd always visit the same restaurant in nai yang every day, same time. think you can guess the rest 🙂

curious about street view one day, they zoomed in on the road through the resort, and lo and behold, there they were sitting outside the restaurant in their usual place 😀

get em to delete the house entirely off street view and stitch together the houses on either side.

That way you can avoid paying Council Tax.

Did they smudge the satellite view too or can all the roofers still see your roof from space

I'm in a neighbourhood watch area so any suspicious rogue spending more time outside the house, working out a means of accessing the property

Make sure the 45 degree aerial shot on Google also blurs it out.
Also make sure the estate agent hasn't left the property schedule online.
And check the plans aren't available from the council.

Because that's how burglars work - they plan incredibly elaborate Mission Impossible style heists by carefully studying your house to see if they abseil through your skylight from a stealth helicopter 😀

I'm so posh that I'm not on street view.. of course the Arial view is waaaay more informative but they couldn't possibly be of any use.... 8)

I quite like looking at our house on Streetview, quite like the fact it's on there.

You have a lot of faith in Neighbour watch.

Ahhh the benefits of being down a private drive that streetview can't access.....

...are completely outweighed by the fact that if the postman slips over on ice whilst walking down it the owners of the five houses down it are jointly liable

I'm in favour of this as my house is a shamefully derelict hovel, and even should I pull my finger out and make it wholesome, google will broadcast my shame to the world till such time as the photocar pops 'round again. I'm with you OP, us prideful but lazy scrubbers should be able to hide our shame from the wider world (and anyone we buy stuff from on here, who may then out us as having unkempt lawns)

I have been helping burglars since before street view existed I have never yet heard of one planning a "mission" using it . Better spending your time making sure your door locks are flush with the frame so they can't be twisted out with molegrips .
Don't park nice cars outside on a night and don't leave windows open .And teaching your teenage kids not to tell their mates when that are going on holid
In my experience "planning" consists of driving round looking for opportunities.

A while back some "roofers" knocked on the door when I was at work and by the time my mum had answered one of them had climbed onto the roof via the garage. This was before I had it smudged out.

Good thing you had it smudged out then, now any wood be theives won't realise there's a house there. 🙄

Really don't get it.

Just had a thought. Any savvy burglars who find out what town the OP is living in could just go round it on street view looking for the smudged out house, then given he's on STW they'd be sure to find expensive bikes inside.

Sleep tight.

OP has too much time on his hands..

Moonlander

I back OP on this, i think Google are taking a bit of a liberty with this. If we all did what the OP did, then we would regain a little of our agency over what is in the public domain

I back OP on this, i think Google are taking a bit of a liberty with this. If we all did what the OP did, then we would regain a little of our agency over what is in the public domain

Unless you live on a private estate, the view of your house is in the public domain.....

I'm pretty sure that my house is firmly in the public domain.

It'd be much harder to get to if it wasn't. 😀