Remove Your Face, House, Car from Google Street View
March 23rd, 2009Google Street View can easily photograph your face, house, car, license plate etc. and display it across the world which may raise privacy concerns. But it is easy to remove such personal images from Google Street View easily.
Google respects your privacy and usually blurs identifying personal details. But now you can ask Google to have photographs of yourself, your children, cars or houses completely removed from the Google Street View even where the images have already been blurred.
Step I - Identify Street View
First find the Google Street View page. Visit Google Maps, zoom to the maximum zoom possible, and if a Street View is available, you can see the details. You can also make the small orange man on the bottom right screen walk along the street and watch the Street View change.
For example, I walked along the Market street in San Francisco on Google maps, and found several people and shops. Suppose I want to report that the Google Street car photographed my face and pasted it on Google Street view, I can report it to Google.
Step 2 – Report Inappropriate Google Street View
After you identify the concerned Google Street View, see the bottom left of the concerned map screen, and look for the faint “Report a Problem” link. Click on it.
Step 3 – Report Privacy Concerns
Clicking on this link takes you to the Google Local Business Centre page where you can Report Inappropriate Street View.
They allow you to report a face that has not been blurred, an identifiable photo of your face or your child face, your legible license plate that has not been blurred, a picture of your car, your house, inappropriate offensive or NSFW images, bad image quality, security concerns etc. Report your Street View problem in detail and fill in your email
Step 4 – Focus Face, Car, House on Street Image
They provide an detailed Street View Image you reported. Adjust the red box in 3D by moving your mouse and clearly focus on the part of the image you are reporting.
Submit it and you are done. Check the neighbourhood around your house on Google Maps Street View, and if you find yourself there, unblurred and easily identifiable, report to Google and get yourself blurred or removed.
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I have tried to remove my house,car, face from this web site and it is not working can you please remove all.
I would appreciate an email to confirm this,
kind regards.
I have tried to remove my house car etc from this site!
please remove and email confirmation that you have done so.
I wish to remove the image of my house and street immediately from the Google Street website. The ‘report a problem’ does not work. I can find no other way of contacting you.
I consider this a gross invasion of privacy and request immediate response enabling me to remove this image.
I am writing to my MP
M Brooks
You have to visit Google Maps first > then locate the street view to which you have objection > then find the Report a problem link at the bottom of that page. This article is for informational purpose only.
This street view is a disgrace. These idiots have no right to film my property. Absolute tyranny.
shut up you knob, no one wants to look at your crappy house anyway.
Address are public knowledge anyway so anyone can find your home if they have GPS etc if they are looking for you. And if you or your kids are in the yard are you blurred out in real life should they drive by! Geez people its not that serious.
Gee, I bet bush, rockefeller, rothschild, ford, gates, and all those families will surely let someone come up to their property and photograph their assets with NO problem, right? Try hanging out at the WH taking pics of even the lawn and see if you are not removed. It is BS.
Just because we can do it doesn’t mean it MUST be done, as others have said. Why do you need to see my personal property anyway? All you need is an X to mark the spot. Communitarianism has a stronghold on this country and it is obvious. Some people are private, others are not; so, why should your opinion be more valid than a person that likes privacy?
I wish to remove the image and street immediately from your google street website. Advice about the ‘report a problem’ from your website and on television this evening does not work. Please remove my house and car from your site with immediate effect and email confirmation that you have done so. This is a violation of privacy. It should be legislated against.
please remove my house from your streetview maps
This isn’t good enough – there’s no way to prevent a house appearing in street view beforehand. The only remedy is to wait until you find out that your house/car/face appears and then to have it removed (maybe), and needs legislation now. Like many others, I have no problem with CCTV, but for someone to drive a high-viewpoint camera round is a step too far.
Report a Problem doesn’t work for sure however I will be calling their HQ until my property is removed. I’m sure the problem will be resolved after a few thousand calls – don’t hesitate call them!
This really doesn’t work for removing a house. I have found over 40 unique images which contain my home. It can be seen from so many different angles that getting Google to remove all of them just isn’t practical.
Can’t believe the idiots who are asking you to remove images. I sincerely doubt they can even work Street View.
Even worse is the people who say they have no right to photograph their property. Yes, they do. So do I. I can go take a photo of any house I wish, and post it online at any time, and it’s perfectly legal.
John, It is everyones right to have their
house removed from google street view if they wish.
As to their reasons, well thats none of our business.
Chuck
@everyone, this is a commentary about an article, saying that you want your house removed here does nothing.
@everyone, in the United States there is something called the First Amendment. In the First Amendment it clearly states freedom of speech and expression. From a legal standpoint this is a form of speech and expression and thus protected by law. The fact that Google even offers you to remove images of structures, vehicles, and people is a courtesy because they are not legally bound to do so.
In addition this could also fall under grounds of freedom of the press and would also be considered protected by law.
@Evan, tyranny is a form of government. Google is a business not a government.
So far as I am aware, our house has not yet appeared on Google Street website. I wish to ensure that it NEVER appears on your website. I have no wish to make public my address and therefore request a confidential email address so that I may provide you with the full address. Alun Williams
please remove or blur out my car registration number
Common people!!
If I go thru a street (in real life).. am I not allowed to see your house?.. or you? your childrens?… or lets see your mammas or dogs?
your privacy is whats inside your home.. that Im not allowed to see, if u dont invite me!
Then.. what all these buzz about beeing “catched” on google street view?.. what about those who just are on the street, when a camera man are filming something?.. yes… u would been seen on TV by millions! <– does anyone has thought about that?
If everyone would like to take their faces away, I propose Google, that they can put me on every others place!!… I still up at a photo shoot!.. (and for free).
I mean… grow up people!, the moment you are born, even then.. the first touching you arent your parents but some people you dont know at all.. did you let them?… heh, lets sue all of them!
Cheers!,
idiot. it would take me 10 hours to drive to the house i want to kill the person in. then i would have to look very peculiar taking a photo of a house for no reason which would alert the police or neighbours.
it takes me 2 seconds to look in great detail on street views at how i can do that.
I object strongly to making images of where I live available to everyone. It should be clear that Streetview allows individuals – some curious and perfectly inoffensive but others with more nefarious purpose – to easily view the geography of a location and property within it which they would otherwise have beeen unaware of.
Anyone who comes into our small hamlet is usually noticed, it is this community interaction which has helped keep our area crimefree. Street view invades privacy through allowing unregulated access to the geographical area in which we live. It pays no attention to the formal democratic framework or informal local custom which help a community manage itself successfully.
Suprised to see such an invasion of privacy. Here in the UK people that use CCTV equipment must be licensed (public spaces) so how on Earth does Google escape such excemption particularly as they are zoooming into ones front garden which subsequently allows the world to do the exact same!
Big Brother is watching
what about stalkers? this makes it quite easy for them, or any criminal for that matter. or what about identity theives? makes their job a lot easier if they want to rifle through your trash to find some personal info, i bet our trash cans locations are in the pics too…….big brother didnt think this thing through to its inevitible conclusion.
are the homes of the Google executives on the Street view and if not could someone fix that oversite by getting them on the way to work but please blur the images
I don’t mind my house/street being on Google Streetview …. but right the very moment the car passed my very quiet road I was sat outside on the step in my pyjamas and high heels, hair unbrushed, having a cigarette…. hope the landlord doesn’t see that as it’s a no smoking building and it’s obvious it’s me.
That’s the thing, if you’re photographed outside your house, it’s obvious to anybody who knows you that it’s you.
I did ask Google to remove it, but it’s still there :(
And now I can’t email a link to it to people to say “this is where I live” because they’ll see me sat in PJs and high heels having a cigarette.
it should not be up to the individual to have to opt out of public surveillance– if the technology is not there to request instant removal permanently of your property — simply on line & by post for those that dont use the internet– the only way forwards is for every comunity to band together to slash tires barricade camers vehicles on sight & try to smash the cameras, then the ’service’ would soon become unviable
Regardless as to whether or not it is allowed, Google has chosen to make many of their users EXTREMELY uncomfortable. If they choose to update pictures of our home leads to the possibility of my 3 year old daughter being photographed and that terrifies me. Do they update photos? I am so extremely disappointed with Google that I feel as though I am going to have to resort to other search engines until this UNETHICAL act is resolved.
I can not believe you people are so freaked out about this. Get a life people, no one is going to stalk your trash can using google earth. And unless you have your personal info painted in huge letters on the front of your house how could anyone steal your identity just by looking at your house?
p.s. – Angela, if you live in a non smoking building, maybe you should not smoke. How would your landlord catching you in a lie be google’s fault?
I am a stalker and have made many successful stalks thanks to the help of google street view. Thanks Google! Keep giving me fresh locations and I’ll keep stalkin.
I like picking random neighborhoods on google street view to walk around and see if I can see people in their yard. I love GOOG.
As someone who has to register as a S.O. I like using google street view to see which houses may or may not have children. This way I know which ones to stay away from and avoid temptation.
This is Big Brother at its worst !!! CCTV requires a licence so, in my opinion, Street View’ should need one. When people can be clearly seen and identified, surely it is a violation of their human rights to privacy if their request to have themselves and their property removed is ignored.
Come on Google, there are a lot of us who are disgusted with this ’so called’ Service.
Try to drive up to google’s research facility and start taking pictures…see what happens.
For crying out loud, you would have thought this was a molester site forum group. Hey wait, maybe it is.
i think everyone has the right to choose whether or not they wish for photos of their house to be available via google maps.
Some people feel uneasy while others simply dont mind. And google should accept each individual’s own decision and remove photos on request.
I personally find it a bit creepy that a photo of my house can be accessed in a few seconds on the internet. But thats just me.
This tool makes it much easier for home invasion crooks to single out a house to rob…