It might prevent thieves from casing your place online
of ConsumerAffairs
Burglaries and home invasions are increasing in some large cities but residents of upscale neighborhoods have devised a creative way to make it harder for criminals to target their homes.
They have found a way to blur the image of their home on Google Maps, in particular Google Street View. If the criminals cant see their home they may be less likely to target it.
"I've never even heard of that, and I think it's a great idea," Officer Ryan Railsback, of the Riverside, Calif., Police Department, told ABC 7 in Los Angeles. "Criminals are coming up with new and innovative ways to do their job, so we need to be up on how to do ours."
You dont have to be a graphic artist or tech wizard to alter your homes image in Google Maps. First, find your home on Google Maps by entering your address.
Next, click on the photograph of your house in the upper left corner of the screen. That will produce a full-screen image of your home.
At the bottom right corner of the full-screen image, in small print, click on report a problem.
That will open a page entitled Report an inappropriate Street View. Below the photograph there is a section entitled Request blurring, with the options:
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A face
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My home
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My vehicle/license plate
Select My home and answer the rest of the questions on the page.
You can do much the same thing on real estate sites that display images of your home. In 2022 we wrote this story that tells you how to make your home less visible on the internet.
Gary Guthrie provided graphics for this article
Photo Credit: Consumer Affairs News Department Images
Posted: 2024-08-21 16:46:02
