How to Hide Your House on Google Maps

Privacy is increasingly becoming a global concern as the line between our real world and virtual world gets blurred.

Google Maps is one of my go-to tools and is a great way to understand properties all over the world. However, what if you have privacy concerns about those street views and don’t want strangers seeing the home you just bought – or even your face – that was snapped by a Google Maps camera? I’ll tell you how to hide your house on Google Maps street view in this post.

By now you have probably seen photos of the Google Maps car. It’s the car wrapped in Google branded imagery with a globe of cameras mounted to its roof. Those cameras provide great 360 degree photos of seemingly every major road in the world. However, you can take a few simple steps to blur your house or face if they appear in their photos.

How to Hide Your House on Google Maps – Step by Step

1. GO TO GOOGLE MAPS - Go to https://www.google.com/maps in your web browser.

2. FIND YOUR HOUSE - Enter your street address in the field that says “Search Google Maps”.

3. GO TO A STREET VIEW OF YOUR HOME - Click on the photo below the field where you wrote your address to go to the street view.

Alternatively, you can click on the yellow icon and drag it onto a street that is highlighted in blue. If the street isn’t highlighted in view, then Google didn’t photograph that street and you won’t be able to see a street view.

4. SELECT “REPORT A PROBLEM” - At the bottom right side of the screen click “report a problem”. It is very, very, tiny print!

5. COMPLETE THE “REPORT INAPPROPRIATE STREET VIEW” FORM - A new window/tab opens where you can ask Google to blur a face, your home, your car, your car’s license plate, or some other object. See a screenshot of this form below.

6. ENTRY YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND SUBMIT - Finally, once you complete this form, enter your email address and click the “submit” button. Check back in a few days and you should find the area you noted blurred out like the image at the beginning of this post.

Done - Privacy increased!!