GOOGLE Maps is a useful tool most of us probably couldn’t live without these days when planning a trip.
Using Street View to familiarise yourself with roads and buildings is a massive advantage – but had you considered it could be misused to invade your privacy?
As CNET points out, stalkers or criminals could use it to get a sneaky view of your house.
This means they can see things like any CCTV cameras you have or where the doors and windows are located.
And with people potentially going away for Christmas soon, it could leave your homes exposed.
So what can you do to protect yourself?
There’s a special trick the likes of Tony Blair, Sir Paul McCartney and countless other celebrities have used.
And it’s not reserved for the rich and famous only either.
You can blur your home from view – here’s how.
First up, you’ll need to do it on a desktop computer.
Go to maps.google.com and search your home address.
Hit the photo of your home that should appear on the left.
In the bottom right you should see Report a problem in really tiny text – click it.
Adjust the red box so it covers the area you want to blur.
Use + and – to zoom in and out as necessary – or just scroll with your mouse.
Select My home from the options below.
Google will ask you to provide any additional information to help them properly blur the right thing, so give any details as necessary.
Be sure you’re blurring the right thing – and that you’re certain.
At this point Google warns that there’s no going back once the request is sent.
The blurring effect is applied permanently.
Finally, enter your email address and confirm you’re not a robot.
Then hit the Submit button.
After this, you’ll get a confirmation email from Google.
They may follow up asking for more information.
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