# Anyone here blurring their house on Google Maps? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 6, 2015, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-blurring-their-house-on-google-maps/736805 "2015-11-06T14:32:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2015, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-blurring-their-house-on-google-maps/736805/21 "2015-11-07T04:48:39Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Why do I suspect that if you request Google to blur your house you immediately get put on the watch list of a dozen different security agencies? Because for some reason you are under the impression that a random aerial still photograph of a person’s home provides meaningful information to law enforcement or intelligence agencies? ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2015, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-blurring-their-house-on-google-maps/736805/22 "2015-11-07T04:56:59Z")
I have not … one of my favorite hobbies is to periodically check in with it to look at our vacation house to see if/when the picture was updated. For a long time, the picture showed an old sliding door that was removed and was waiting for a disposal truck to pick it up; I was very excited when I eventually saw a photo _without_ rubbish in my yard. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2015, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-blurring-their-house-on-google-maps/736805/23 "2015-11-07T05:04:08Z")
Nah. I’m in an apartment. It’s in the back of a courtyard full of trees. Can’t see it from Streetview so I don’t see how it would matter. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2015, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-blurring-their-house-on-google-maps/736805/24 "2015-11-07T06:30:03Z")
No, I don’t see the point for me. I like looking to see when it was last updated. My house is actually from around 2011, but the neighbors is closer to 2007. I can tell based on the cars in the driveway. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-blurring-their-house-on-google-maps/736805/25 "2015-11-08T00:08:50Z")
Google has finally updated my house. We had the pine trees in the front yard cut down about six years ago, but they still showed on Google. Now they don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-blurring-their-house-on-google-maps/736805/26 "2015-11-09T19:45:48Z")
I figured that having Google blur my house wouldn’t be very effective as it wouldn’t prevent other sites from posting it. I just hopped over to my local paint store and bought a few gallons of Blurmeister exterior coating and painted the entire front of the house, windows and all. It’s expensive, but well worth it. Now the front of my home is blurry to everyone, all the time. Well, almost. When it rains a lot, as it has lately, the coating changes from blur to pixilate. It’s still a hoot to watch people drive by and rub their eyes, trying to focus! If you decide to go this route, DO NOT coat the garage entry! You’ll never be able to park the car in there again. Not without being drunk enough to offset the blur… ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-blurring-their-house-on-google-maps/736805/27 "2015-11-09T21:50:41Z")
My new house is in an area so recently developed that the street does not even appear in Google Maps or GPS devices. The picture on Google is of the empty lot. I can live with that for a while. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-here-blurring-their-house-on-google-maps/736805.md?page=1)