Google Street View opens a window to the world in all its weird, intimidating and often raw glory. This also allows anyone to peek into your home, too. Needless to say, these unwanted glares at your bedroom, living room and windows serve as a feast to potential stalkers…

Fortunately, there’s a way to protect this unwanted peeking. Google can blur your house out from the map, leaving only a blurry image suggesting a building in its place. How can you do it? Let’s explain this:

Launched in 2007, Street View offers a street-level view of many cities, villages and towns around the globe. The service had been a subject of controversies from day one, as it jeopardizes someone’s privacy and many more…

In 2008, the Minnesota suburb of North Oaks decided to stay out of Google’s street view services entirely and threatened to sue Google for trespassing. Google immediately blurred off the town’s images.

In the following year, the lobbying organization Privacy International lodged an official complaint to the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) accusing that Google failed to accurately de-identify the people, it captured. Many believe that this failure could cause some severe consequences in society.

Google has never been a protector of anyone’s privacy, nor it claimed to be! In 2010, the company accepted that it’s Street View vehicles, capturing images as they roam around neighbourhoods, have covertly been gathering data from unencrypted WiFI networks as they drove by for past years.

So, if there’s any Joe Goldberg that wants to peek into your window or an online stalker, Google has plenty of stuff or digitized photos of your home available for all to see. Well, now, you can ask Google to permanently blur your house out including the picture of your home or apartment on Google Street View.

Here’s how you can do it:

Step 1: Go to Google Maps and type your home address.

Step 2: Activate a Street View Mode by dragging the small yellow human-shaped icon, located in the bottom-right corner of the screen, onto the map in front of your house.

Step 3: keep your house/ apartment in view, select “Report a problem” in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Step 4: add your home into the red box, and click “My Home” in the “Request blurring” field.

Step 5: type out a relevant reason why you want the chosen field image blurred (for example, privacy or security concerning issues)

Step 6: add your email address, and select “Submit”.

After submitting the request, you’ll receive a confirmation email from Google stating that it’s “reviewing the image you reported and will email you when your request is resolved.” Google may follow up, via emails to specify the details and images you want to blur out. And you’re good to go!