Would You Blur Your House on Every Map App?

If you'd like to deter 'digital voyeurs,' Popular Science points out that you can ask the map apps from Google, Apple, and Microsoft 'to draw a veil of privacy across your property.

'You'd be in good company too: Apple CEO Tim Cook had his home blurred from mapping apps after issues with a stalker.'

There is something to bear in mind before you do this, though: you may not be able to reverse the process. The blur could be there for good. This is the case for Google Maps, and while Apple and Microsoft don't specify whether blurs on their services are permanent, they may follow the same protocol or decide to do so in the future.

The case for blurring? 'Having strangers from all over the world stare at your home isn't necessarily something you want to happen — but it can be done in seconds on the mapping apps we all carry around on our phones.' ('Stop people from peering at your place,' suggests the article's subtitle.)

But is there also a case against demanding platforms blur what's essentially just the exterior of a building? Where's the boundary where we're honoring the wishes of the privacy-conscious — and does the public ever have a right to see? Share your own thoughts in the comments.

And would you blur your house on every map app?

(Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the article...)

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