In case you haven’t heard of Google Streetview; it is an itiative setup by Google to give you the freedom to look at any house from closeup. It’s similar to Google Earth except the images are a lot clearer and of better quality. The quality improvement is because the images weren’t taken from a satellite, but a van similar to this:
Click to Enlarge.
For a lot of people having a closeup photo of their house may be an invasion of privacy. Luckily it is very simple to get your house removed.
Step 1: Send an email to maps-legal@google.com stating you would like your house removed and provide your name and residential address. Some people say it is required to also attach a photo I.D. but it’s not always required.
Step 2: Within a few days you should receive an email with a link to your address on streetview, confirming it is your house/address. Just reply to this email saying that is correct.
Step 3: Wait another few days until you receive this:
According to our records, you recently submitted a report regarding an
inappropriate image in Street View on Google Maps. We’re currently
reviewing the material you reported to determine whether the image
should be removed from the product. We appreciate your assistance.
Sincerely,
The Google Maps Team
Step 4: If your request is approved, you will receive a final email and all images in streetview featuring your house will be blacked out completely.
Hello,
Our records show that you recently flagged an image within Google
Maps Street View as inappropriate. The image has been removed from
our service.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and
appreciate your patience while we dealt with this.
Regards,
The Google Team
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:02 am
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa – that’s completely wrong.
DO NOT send them an email – that’s gonna take ages to get read. THERE’S A MUCH EASIER WAY OF DOING IT:
Find your house on Google Maps (search for your address), then click on the Street View button to see what the picture looks like. When you’ve found the picture of your house click on the “Street View Help” button at the top right of the picture. On the next page click on the “report inappropriate image” link. That then takes you to a really quick form – basically you click on the “remove my house button, add an email address, complete the captcha and hit send.
That’s way easier and gonna be way quicker than sending someone an email and waiting while they find your house (how will they know what it looks like??!) then email you back and wait for you to write back again.
I removed my house using the removals form above – it literally took 1 minute to complete the form, and the image came down overnight. I was pretty impressed, actually.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:10 am
Yeah your way is probably better. However, my method is not ‘completely wrong’ as it still works, just takes a few extra days.
“waiting while they find your house (how will they know what it looks like??!)”
They will know because you include your address in the email.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:05 am
“They will know because you include your address in the email”
Have you tried searching Google Maps by address? Their address range is hopeless, when I searched for my house it put me half way down the street on the other side. So the operator isn’t going to be able to find the right house by doing an address lookup. So unless you include some visual clues in your email as well as your address, I wouldn’t trust an operator (who’s probably half way around the world) to be able to find your house. That’s why it’s better to find the actual picture of your house and report that.
I take it back though – you’re way’s not completely wrong, I just don’t think it’s the best way of doing it – especially because Google went to the effort of building a removals tool right into the product.
September 20th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
admin got pwnt
September 21st, 2008 at 2:18 am
Nah, it still works man… But yeah, admin got pawned
November 15th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I don’t care if it is legal or not for you, Google, to have a picture of my home on your system. I want it removed from your system.
I feel it is an invasion of my privacy. You don’t care about an individual’s feelings…reflected it the above blogs, but I don’t like it and I want it removed! Your instructions to remove it are not easy to follow…and it is difficult to contact you. If you don’t remove it I will not use you for anything anymore. I think you are getting too big for your own good.
November 15th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I am unable to locate the removal tool according to your response to #3 above (Jonathan). I have been trying to get to the bottom of this for an hour. I want the picture of my home removed from your Google Map system.,
Pretty Please??