Google Street View lets you take a virtual walk through almost any corner of the world, and beyond. You can even take photos (sort of) as if you’re really traveling. But did you know you can also hide your home from curious virtual “visitors?” If you want, you can request from Google to blur your home from public view.
Google Street View automatically blurs out faces and license plates, as well as inappropriate content such as nudity or violence. You can ask Google to blur any of these by clicking on “Report a Problem” link in the bottom right corner. But also, you can request it to blur out your home.
I wanted to try this out with my parents’ home just to show you, but my street was being repaired when the Google Car drove through the neighborhood. So, you can’t see our house even though it isn’t blurred (quote a privacy protection, right?) So, I chose a random house in our quarter just to show you what it looks like:
I think that a feature like this definitely should exist. Even though we don’t really get much privacy in the modern age, we can at least choose how much we want to reveal. On the other hand, I wonder how Google will know if this is really my house that I’m trying to blur. What if I want to blur a random house like I just showed you, or someone’s business, or even a public place? I wonder if there’s some kind of a way to verify whether that’s really my home that I’m trying to blur. While it’s good to have this option, I think there could also be some potential misuses of it.
[via PetaPixel]
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