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

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. 😀

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

Sure, but not so available to them.

Your face is in the public domain, you probably wouldn’t like it on loads of advertising hoardings

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.

That’s hilarious!

One of the advantages of living in a private, i.e. un-adopted, road was we never had Google Street View.

One of the advantages of living in a private, i.e. un-adopted, road was we never had Google Street View.

Why is that an advantage ?

Your face is in the public domain, you probably wouldn’t like it on loads of advertising hoardings

I wouldn’t mind the cash would be nice.

It’s a bit like when BACS/Standing Orders/electronic money transfers first started, people would say ‘ooh, I don’t like to give you my bank details, I’d rather give you a cheque…’
You can smudge streetview but all the info’s still there.

One of the advantages of living in a private, i.e. un-adopted, road was we never had Google Street View.

Some private/unadopted roads do appear on Google Street View.

I appear on streetview a few times.. every image is me giving the finger to the camera

I’ve just had my house smudged out on Google Street View

I appear on streetview a few times.. every image is me giving the finger to the camera

One of the advantages of living in a private, i.e. un-adopted, road was we never had Google Street View.

I’m going to put my house on the market first thing tomorrow and move to a private road and get some of that “advantage”

I’m sick of there being a few pictures of my road on the internet somewhere that nobody ever looks at.

I have to admit I didn’t know you could get google to smudge out pictures of bridges.

CharlieMungus – Member
Unless you live on a private estate, the view of your house is in the public domain.
Sure, but not so available to them.

Your face is in the public domain, you probably wouldn’t like it on loads of advertising hoardings

Well, that’s hardly the same thing now, is it? Anyone can walk past your house and look at it, and often do, same as loads of people walk past you every day and look at you, and you them.
Which isn’t the same as a photo of you or your house being used to advertise a product for someone else’s monetary gain.
On StreetView, all houses and buildings are effectively anonymous, unless there’s a chuffing great sign on the front with a name on it.
Even having a postcode is useless, because it covers around fourteen or so houses.
Obfuscating your house is, fundamentally a complete waste of time.

If your neighbour wears Google glasses do they “smudge” out his vision when he takes out the bins and looks in your direction.
Could be dangerous when driving down your street too.

Big list of advantages there might have to give this a go.

The last place I lived the previous owners must not have heard of that feature so planted a massive palm tree to make sure nobody knew there was a house there

What house?

exactly

It looks a little odd seeing a blurred house amongst those whose lounge windows can be peered through and whose side entrances can be seen. I stand by my decision and am quite proud that I did when everyone here is apparently so happy to show their houses off on the internet.

If my house was for sale then sure I’d like whatever publicity I could get if it helps to fetch a high value. So I’d stick it on an Estate Agents site. In fact I might even try my luck selling it privately though I haven’t looked in to that. I wouldn’t as I intend to live here much longer than I already have (decades).

Perhaps those who are living in a property which has been burgled may think similarly to me. Showing various entry points of a private property at a location which is easy to pin point doesn’t reassure me that a Street View of my house is a good thing. Made me feel a little vulnerable in fact.

Street View is great to have a nose about on. I just think if someone’s going to have a nose about my property then they’ll have to come over here, in full public view, where my neighbours and neighbours, neighbours are more likely to question their intent. If a thief looked at my house on Street View, saw it as being easy pickings, then I’d expect they’d be more prepared at night to come and try their luck.

At the end of the day somebody decided to take a picture of my house and post it on the internet for all and sundry to see. I’m not happy with that. It was in my power to hide it and I’m happy with my decision.

What tree?

Is it everybody else pointing out how pointless it is which has made you so proud?

Perhaps those who are living in a property which has been burgled may think similarly to me.

I reckon you should ask your insurance company for a discount now you’ve decreased the chances of being burgled so much.

people would say ‘ooh, I don’t like to give you my bank details, I’d rather give you a cheque

I’ve never got that one either. It’s like saying “I’d feel safer giving you my bank details and a specimen signature”.

A quick walk or drive down any street will tell you enough, side gates, security lights everything else.
If there was a link between crime and street view I’m sure the Daily Wail would have been calling for it to be banned. The aerial view would probably give much more useful info showing of you have a shed, how secluded the back entrance is, ease of access from the back of the house etc.

The information you are obscuring is easily got hold of by driving round, the stuff that is left out there can only be got from aerial photography and satellites. If I was using streetview to “case the joint”* I’d probably be aware that it could be out of date and probably drive past to check that it was still the same and have a good look at any house that has been blurred out.

and none of this stops the random/opportunist/smack head who just decides that your house look easy to break into/needs more smack.

*obviously I’m not a crim, I’d also probably pay some professionals to do it anyway, wouldn’t want to put my back out lifting your TV or gold bullion.

Don’t be silly, the neighbourhood watch peeps will be reporting all the cars driving down the street casing joints with GoPros SJ4000s

Active members of a prime time-wasting site telling a fellow time waster he’s wasting his time.

Except that he is more usefully wasting his time than they are.

And there went another 10 minutes of my life (because I also had a look at Streetview to see if my abode is there).

Perhaps those who are living in a property which has been burgled may think similarly to me.

I’ve been burgled twice, and I’m still not seeing the point.

Though strangely, both times were before Street View existed. How’s that work, then?

Though strangely, both times were before Street View existed. How’s that work, then?

They can now see it’s not worth burgling you.

Ha…. I modelled up my house in sketchup and submitted it for google earth.

Made me feel a little vulnerable in fact.

Oh you poor thing. 😐

I stand by my decision and am quite proud that I did when everyone here is apparently so happy to show their houses off on the internet.

The irony being of course that you’ll be the only person who ever sees the smudged out house on streetview.

Hmmm. If I was “bad guy” I might be very curious who lived in a house that had been smudged. Politician? Celebrity? Senior police? Ex SAS? High profile ex con? Definitely something to hide.

They can now see it’s not worth burgling you.

Sadly, that’s probably true.

I’ve also been burgled. However, I’m 100% sure that street view had nothing to do with it. And I’m sure it has very little to do with most burglaries either. I don’t think the OP realises how most burglaries are conducted.

Burglars don’t choose a house and then scope it out. They walk around looking for quick easy opportunities. The only reason they would target a particular property is if they think there’s something particularly high in value in there. So by smudging your house out all you’ve done is draw attention to it.

However I’m sure burglars don’t trawl street view, because you can’t see much on it anyway. Much better to walk the streets at 3am (or even during the day) and look with your own eyes.

If a thief looked at my house on Street View, saw it as being easy pickings, then I’d expect they’d be more prepared at night to come and try their luck.

Well then make sure it’s not easy pickings!

And there went another 10 minutes of my life (because I also had a look at Streetview to see if my abode is there).

It took you 10 minutes? You need more internet practice, thats about 20 times longer than it should take.

Just had a quick look at our house to see how genuinely useful the information is to the local crims….

Well, they could always come round and steal the caravan that is sitting on the drive that the previous owner took with him when he moved out almost 4 years ago.
Then there’s the side entrances that are shadowy voids that you cannot see down at all. Oh, and there’s the front door. I think that’s about it.

Out of curiousity, just looked at my parent’s house and you can’t look at it front on – the map won’t settle in front of their house for som reason. But, you can see that my brother was visiting, as was my sister by the cars on the drive. Interestingly, the neighbours house is blurred out, it’s the only one in the street that is and it looks a bit weird.

In all seriousness – I am not too concerned about my house being on Google maps, but I do try to take care about what information I put on Facebook. Never ceases to amaze me the amount of people who broadcast to all their friends (and god knows who else) about the fact that they are all off to Florida for 2 weeks from Saturday…..