Google Maps Street View: Removing Your House
According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, if you are looking for more privacy, then you should move.
His callous remark came during a discussion on Google Maps Street View cars, which were found to be illegally collecting e-mails, passwords and surfing habits while photographing your neighborhood. Appearing on CNN’s Parker Spitzer a week ago, Schmidt made a bold statement that was eventually edited out of the broadcast. He said that said individuals who did not want the Street View cars to snap photos of their homes should “just move.” Schmidt then told The Hollywood Reporter, “As you can see from the unedited interview, my comments were made during a fairly long back and forth on privacy. I clearly misspoke. If you are worried about Street View and want your house removed please contact Google and we will remove it.” You can have your house removed from Google Maps Street View. Here’s how (see video):
- Go to www.google.com/maps
- Locate your house by typing its address into the search box and pressing Enter.
- Click on the small picture of your house that says Street View.
- Adjust Google Maps Street View by clicking the left and right arrows on the Street View image until you see your house.
- Click the Report a Problem link at the bottom-right corner of the Street View image.
- It will take you to a page to Report Inappropriate Street View. Here you can ask to have any number of things blurred, including the picture of your house.
- You will need to provide your email address and submit a CAPTCHA.
An investigation into Google’s accidental practice of collecting identity information has been opened in France, Germany, Spain, as well as in the U.S. Google claims that it will delete the sensitive information as soon as possible, but in the meantime, victims remain helpless. John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on identity theft, internet privacy, fraud training & technology defense. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgwQPhpRPd0&rel=0]
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25 Responses to Google Maps Street View: Removing Your House
Anyone can photograph your house and put it online, it’s not against the law. I don’t see how it’s identity theft if it can be seen from public street. I guess if you put your social security number on your house, you might have a problem then (sarcasm). Photos of homes in many areas can be found on your local property appraiser’s website along with your name, it’s public record. Like it or not… Google, along with any Joe Schmoe can take a picture of your house and do whatever they want with it. Schmidt is right, if don’t want your house to be seen, move to a rural home that sits very far off the roadway. However, the collection of E-Mails IS concerning.
GOOGLE is not good. This causes breaching privacy, permanently threatens security and host of other concerns.
It is disgusting.
The United States is the only modern country which completely disregards individual privacy.
The fools believe they are “free” .. when they could not be more hopelessly enslaved.
The United States is a business, not a country, let’s remember.
this invasion of privacy not only allows criminals to destroy lives, but opens of course the flood gates to MASS MARKETING, attempting to shove junk down our throats.
More “free” credit cards, more junk we are convinced we need, etc. etc..not to mention scams taking advantage of the elderly…
These images and personal data online serve NO OTHER NECESSARY FUNCTION OR PURPOSE.
I am in a house in a rural area off the beaten track…but there it is up on google for all to see!
talk about letting every low life know about your location..its scandelous!!!
I am in the uk and don’t want my property removed just an up to date photo.
the Google pictures are before we renovated and started a business. We now loose trade because people think we are a scam or a horrible place.
what do I do?
I am sorry, but there is no way to have google update the photo. You can, however, remove your house using the following post: http://sileo.eadev.site/google-street-map-remove-house/
I hope this helps.
this is totally wrong my home is on a private lane all my front has been exposed and where my cars park the rear of the property exposed ive had a goat poisoned white rats left which if had been eaten by my birds of pray they would have died ive been told these people looked on google maps to view my security first ,also th factory at the side of me has been targeted that factory was not long ago a top terrorist threat ,if blown up would have wiped 40 square miles out .just down the road is rolls Royce nuclear plant google show their reactors so if one factory went up so would the other both high on terror groups list surely that is a breach of national security . google should be stopped quite easy for thieves to view stuff they want to steal google has made homes unsafe ,mp s ect are in danger too if target groups need to find them
Someone informationed me that stalker found my real name, home address and where my family live from google. Also he found my email. Guess what? I found out someone break in my email for harassing and cyberbully my friends and my family at online. I am not very happy with Google for put my information personal at public. Google is put my family and me in the dangerous! I will be appreciated if Google remove my e mail, real name and other for my own safety.
GOOGLE you have
no respect for peoples’
privacy – only for money
and profit.
And Google your whole world is falling apart.
Tell the truth, you have no respect, do you.
Remove all street view imagery and what so more, don’t do otherwise.
John Sileo, the directions in that link and the links seen on the map are not the same. None of this is seen anywhere. 7.Click Privacy Concerns, My House and I Have Found a Picture of My House and Would Like It Removed.
None of that is shown on the map, or street view or in link to “report a problem”
saturday 10.5.14 my premises were raided and my rescue birds of prey stolen .they knew exactly how to get in from only one possible area through the goats pen injuring one goat as well .from info received they studied google maps knew exactly were the ctv cameras are situated and a very dark area I cant cover my premises are surrounded by severnt trent water cameras 9 in all .then celanese chemicals have ctv and electric movement sensors on their fence these birds missing actually are in my care from Derbyshire wildlife animal protection unit .Derbyshire police you can check their website as they are on there as stolen also check my facebook pages .ive offered £500 reward for the eagle owl alone /facebook .peter ambler /derby /alvaston meadows wildlife rescue ..
google should be arrested for their constant privacy violations.
We should not have to jump thru their hoops to try to restore our privacy.
They are scum who think they are above the law. To he11 with them!
this is very dangerous when someone with ill intent gets a hold of it, and I would guess that a good 80% have no good intent when looking at this, the other 20 want to see if you can see their home. This is NOT a good thing. they are making it too convienent for really evil people.
I have a small business that I run from my house and I don’t want people that I want to do business with to see that I do my business from this unattractive old house. It’s not a professional image and it negatively effects my honest business.
Google is part of the NSA. Time to delete the private home addresses and GPS location.
My google picture clearly shows, parked on my drive (instead of being in my garage where it normally is) my Mitsubishi. It clearly tells any and all car thieves with access to google maps that my car, which is on any car thieves top 10 list, is at my address.
Yes my car is seen in public daily, but only by the relatively few people I pass during the day, and I doubt if many of them are car thieves.
google make it easy for thieves of all types to collect information and locations of anything they wish to steal, from the comfort of their armchairs
Google Street View is the best historical record of our time. We shouldn’t fight against it because it’s our history. United States seems to be better than Europe because in United States there’s no such idiotic regulations as in EU. EU doesn’t allow it’s own history to be preserved with photography. Fortunately United States does allow it.
When you run a business from your home and Google Map comes by and takes a picture of your address while the road is under construction for new sewers and their is garbage is piled up- waiting for collection-this is totally wrong. They should be held responsible. They made my house look like a south Detroit ghetto. Also try moving your business address on Google! – almost impossible. They really need to get their act together.
My beef isn’t with whether my house should or should not be viewed online. My beef is with Google, because I have a legal reason to have my house not appear, and when I contacted Google a few years ago after the trucks came through, they honored my request and redacted the image. But then this year they lifted the redaction, with no notification to me. I just happened to be in the map function, and plugged it in just to make sure they were still doing what they promised. And I found to my horror, my house was once again visible, from all angles. I spent an hour searching on Google.com trying to find the right combo of links to request removal again. All I could find was how to set up the Google account I don’t want.
Thank you, sileo.com, for being here, because your site is how I found the instructions for reporting the problem. It is a shame that companies like Google can get so big that customer service is virtually non-existent. CEOs of Google, are you listening? You’re like the tobacco companies, bringing the world wonderful, cutting edge, fantastic, terrible, inexcusable horror. And, laughing all the way to the bank. You have lost the human connection, but it is too late for you — there is no getting it back now.
US Lawyers are always exploring new and creative ways to make a buck or a million.
I wonder if anyone, possibly public figures dependent on their public image, would SUE for DEFAMATION if a Street View image of their crib was Unflattering?
This is worse than Communism.
Bastard google is posting my house with a picture of me at the front door to the world which is an invasion of privacy without my consent. Google makes it hard for anyone to not grant them rights to keep my picture posted…….Any lawyers out there who want this case?
Let’s do a class action lawsuit
john its easy. do what I have done (only applies if in the UK, our privacy law is a bit different to that in the u.s). go to you street view image, bottim RH corner click ‘report’. this is where you have to be specific in the comment box – tell google you property is copyright to you. as it is unique and is unlike no other. tell them you have painted the house yourself and it is therefore a work of art, same with the garden and architecture. You have to state that you have designed and laid out you garden and again it is unique and you are the copyright holder. You can tell google they can use the image but only under license and ONLY when any license agreement has been signed and the relivant fees paid to you (the copyright owner). I set mine at $128,000.00 per day as this seems to be what google earn (per Hour) from stealing and collecting information from those not savvy enough to make it difficult to do so. Guess what im Blurred out from all views, even neighboring streets. sorry doesn’t apply to americans, basically you have no privacy rights if you live in the U.S.
tee: March 25, 2017 at 6:50 pm
john its easy. do what I have done (only applies if in the UK, our privacy law is a bit different to that in the u.s). go to you street view image, bottim RH corner click ‘report’. this is where you have to be specific in the comment box – tell google you property is copyright to you. as it is unique and is unlike no other. tell them you have painted the house yourself and it is therefore a work of art, same with the garden and architecture. You have to state that you have designed and laid out you garden and again it is unique and you are the copyright holder. You can tell google they can use the image but only under license and ONLY when any license agreement has been signed and the relivant fees paid to you (the copyright owner). I set mine at $128,000.00 per day as this seems to be what google earn (per Hour) from stealing and collecting information from those not savvy enough to make it difficult to do so. Guess what im Blurred out from all views, even neighboring streets. sorry doesn’t apply to americans, basically you have no privacy rights if you live in the U.S.
we have privacy laws going back centuries, my friend. google maps is adding nothing to historic value. anything important has already been recorded. Google is not motivated to record historic buildings for the public record, they are there for exploiting as much information as they can gleem, selling it on to whoever is stupid enough to buy it, and further their get rich quick scheme at our expense. we have plenty of trust organisations with the uk and EU that are preserving our past and present for generations to come, without the need to turn them into theme parks. the reason why our countries are quite liked by tourists is because we as a country have preserved our historic landmarks. hopefully in a few hundred years the united states of google will see things our way.