On a scale of 1-10, how uncomfortable does it make you to know you can google your street address and get actual shots of your house?

Not as freaked out as I am that people can actually drive by my house and see it.

Seriously, folks. It’s no big deal.

It freaked me out bad at first! I was thinking it looked like someone stood in the street in front of the house and took pictures of it. I didn’t know if they did it with satellites or what. My husband was kinda worried I was gonna start wearing a hat made out of aluminum foil cuz I thought it was so weird! Then about a week later they had a story in our newspaper about it, about how they got the pictures etc and I wasn’t so freaked anymore.

Some people have said it’s an invasion of privacy, but I don’t really think it is. I mean, anyone driving around can look at my house, might as well be able to do it online too.

@Les True, but our neighborhood is pretty secluded, and the only people who really drive past it are people who live in the area. I don’t like knowing that anyone can just pop online and see my house. Some freak at Amazon.com could look me up, LOL.

I Google-mapped my childhood neighborhoods, and they’re worse now than when I lived there. Worse! They were in pretty bad shape to begin with. I wish I hadn’t looked.

You can’t see in the windows of my current place (that is weird, @WillWorkForChocolate!). It’s a large building in a big city. And anyone who has my address can find me anyway. I can’t worry about it.

-3. If someone already knows my address, them seeing a picture of it is the least of my worries. I’d rather them not come for a visit.

@knitfroggy The pictures of our neighborhood homes were taken by a camera on a car. You can actually see the shadow of the car, with a little device on top of it. These aren’t top view pictures taken by remote satellite, someone actually took these. You can look at our house from every different angle. The front picture actually shows our suburban parked in the driveway, with an almost clear shot of my license plate number. You can clearly see straight across the yard, past all the pine cones and pine needles, across our fish pond and almost into our kids’ windows.

I think its crazy that someone drove around taking pictures, I want to know who it was lol. My car is in the photo, which is just funny to me.
Anyone could come see my house if they had my address…so doing that on the internet is no different.

There’s none of my house so I don’t really care.

My area is so rural that all I can see is a sea of green with some lakes. Plus, I had to change my driveway to a private road, so there is no info on my new address. It is the same as my old address; there is no public info on that either.

@WillWorkForChocolate Yeah that’s what the story in the newspaper said. I thought that was kind of interesting. I don’t know why it bothered me when I thought it was satellites or something. Just seemed scary to me for some reason. A car with a camera on it isn’t. In the pic of our house my husbands truck in sitting on the street full of junk he was taking to the landfill. We thought that was funny.

My parent’s emptied garbage can has blown over and is lying in the driveway and the recycle bin has already been collected and flipped.
So I know what day they drove by at least.

I’m in an apartment that isn’t even facing the road, so nothing to worry about there.

It does freak me out a little because you can’t monitor who looks at your house online. If someone is sitting outside your house in a car for a while, you can call the police. If someone just watches your house online, you don’t know. That’s what freaks me out more than people being able to see my house.

@KatawaGrey Yes, exactly!

@KatawaGrey : But this is not real-time viewing of your house. Some shady person sitting in a car outside of your house can see your comings and goings, and that is freaky. But that same person can’t do that on Google. There is no camera outside of your house connected to the internet to show the world your comings and goings. Its just a picture.

@Les, thank you. Someone who has some understanding.

@Les: Well, it still bothers me a little. Sorry if that doesn’t fit with you.

@KatawaGrey : No biggie. All I’m doing is providing a counter point to your point. I’m just discussing. I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer. If it bothers you, that’s fine. It it doesn’t bother you, that’s fine, too.

My friends have a six or eight foot privacy wall in front of their house and the Google people telescoped their camera to shoot over the wall. Creepy mfers.

Your license plates are attached to the back of your cars. Everyone can see them. Your house is next to a public street, everyone can see it.

If you’re going to be paranoid about something I’d be much more paranoid about the proliferation of security cameras, traffic cameras, etc that are recording what you do every single day. I forget the statistics but it’s crazy how many times you are filmed throughout the day.

0 People could find out all kinds of things about me before google.

@kevbo: See, that’s the kind of thing is what’s freaking me out.

@StellarAirman: So, somebody driving by your house with a camera strapped on top and taking pictures isn’t surveillance?

We’re in a small town & our house does not come up. GOOD!

@KatawaGrey No, because they aren’t taking a picture of you and they aren’t interested in what you’re doing. I guess they could be considered watching your actual house, but the chances are, it’s not doing anything interesting sitting there on its own and it’s probably not going to go anywhere.

What do you really think is going to happen if people can look at a picture of your house online? They are not looking at a live feed, they are not watching you come and go, when your lights are on or when they are off, when you are on vacation, etc.

They can see what your house looks like from the front, and that is all. If someone really wanted to break into your house and was doing surveillance, I would imagine they would not be in California looking at a house in Arkansas that they could break into. They are probably going to be nearby, which would mean that they could easily take a picture of their own and accomplish the same thing. They could also do a lot more surveillance like the above, seeing what your schedule is, etc.

Google is not in your house taking pictures of you or your family or your belongings, they are driving by on a public road taking pictures of what everyone else can see from a public road. If you don’t want Google or anyone else seeing what your house looks like or what you look like, then you better black out your windows and put up a 20 foot concrete wall around your house.

There is also a process for removing your image from street view for the ultra paranoid. But like I said, the next time you go to the mall you should probably wear a ski mask, because that is the only way your face isn’t going to end up being recorded 15 times before you get to the food court.

I think it’s cool. I can see the tree where my daughter used to play. I think in one shot I can even see my car (though I’m not sure if it’s that one). I can also spy on my ex’s house – too bad it’s not a real-time surveillance video and the images for that area are too far out. When we were on the run, my daughter used to wave at all the security cameras at the malls. They didn’t need them to find us though. All they had to do was find a person with a grudge – my girlfriend’s ex boyfriend.

I just tried it and i don’t get what you get :(
But i cant see your problem because i could walk past your window and look inside , it happens everyday here everytime people walk past my house they look in . I dont see the difference

Pretty much 0. On first thought it sounds weird, but then when I actually think about it, who the hell cares if someone can see my apartment building? Like a few people have mentioned, anyone can drive or walk by and see it in real time. Why should I care that someone can see a picture of it?

A picture of your house is one of the most benign things someone could find out about you via the Internet.

Meh. What’s the big deal. My house is on a public street. Anyone can drive by it anytime they want.

Not very, I know what Allie’s lovable dog looks like now, because you can see it in her yard on Google. Kind of neat. :)

Every now and then I wonder who’s parked in front of my house.

I was disappointed that they skipped my street completely, because it’s on a cul-de-sac. What I don’t like about public access to my street is that we live in a maze type development, and none of our streets are through streets, so cruising teens screech around corners and do u-turns right through the yards at some intersections.

There was a big deal in Australia about invasion of privacy because they caught a pic of some dude passed out and sleeping it off in his driveway. It was in the paper that his wife had just left him and his best friend died and his ute was broken, all the usual reasons to go on a good drunk.

Just another instance of big brother, why worry, just don’t plant the cash crops in the front yard!!!

wow
i just googled it
ha
it’s awesome, i think

I just googled my parents’ house. My dad is in his robe and pj pants in the driveway.
Classy.

@Likeradar No way! lol. I thought they waited until there were no people. hahaha

@casheroo I’m trying to see if there’s a way to link the pic without it including the address… Weird, right?!?! I just emailed my folks to let them know. I wonder if they’ll care?

hmm, can you right click save the photo? i dunno lol

@casheroo nope, it’s some kind of adobe flash thing… Meh, maybe I’ll figure it out.

Ah! Yay for vista snipping. For anyone who cares… http://s733.photobucket.com/albums/ww336/Likeradar/?action=view&current=dadindriveway.jpg

@Likeradar – lol, he’s peeing in the bushes

@fireside I know! He’s probably pruning the bushes… in his robe…but god. It looks like my dad is on google earth taking a piss in front of his house.

@likeradar hahaha, that’s too funny. i just googled my parents, and i can see my brother out back smoking. nothing as exciting as yours.

Well, it would upset me….but we’re so off the map in Kansas that I can’t get a Google picture even if I want one, which makes me feel unimportant! So….IDK! :)