How Do I Request That Private Property Is Removed From Google Maps

[pipdawg]

In April (2022) I spotted a Google Maps car with the camera on the top travelling along my private drive, filming. Admittedly this private drive looks like a continuation of the public road. I flagged him down explained that he'd recorded about 200 yards of private property. I showed him exactly where the council road ends and the private road starts. He said he'd make a note of it, report it and request that it didn't get published. Low and behold, my private property is now featured on Google Maps. I really want this removed. I reported it to Google Maps and on 17th June got an automated message to say my complaint was being reviewed. I've heard nothing since. Has anyone out there had any success getting stuff removed from Google Street View?

[Buenchico]

https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/google-streetview-remove-home-how-to-213987

[Maydup]

Our house and garden is our private property too but we figure on Google maps like everyone else. I think they will review your request but unlikely to remove anything unless you or anyone else can be identified in their images.

[DTCwordfan]

send them an invoice for £35000 for filming on your private land - and you'll ignore the trespass.

[barry1010]

Maydup, they are only supposed to film from the public highway, which anyone can see. They are not supposed to go on to private property or private roads to film

[johnk]

You don't own the view from a public place, anyone can photograph your house from there

[Hopkirk]

I'm thrilled when I can find places I live or have lived on Streetview.
So should you be.

[barry1010]

Exactly,John. But they can't travel along private property to get footage.
Hopkirk, it doesn't thrill me, why should it?

[Arksided]

So should you be.

I agree with Yoda.

[MTbowels]

There are people in the UK who consider they are important enough to stop this kind of activity occurring. To my mind, unless someone with nefarious intentions can link a property to an individual living there, the householder is no more at risk than the general population.
A friend of mine is a manager at a site where GM research is undertaken and activists protest there regularly. Some staff felt they were at risk at their homes thanks to linking Google camera images to information freely available on the web. They complained to the Information Commisioners Office and the complaint was not upheld.
I've never seen a domestic property blanked out on Google images. How do you suggest Zoopla and other online property services promote a property for sale nowadays without photos of the house and adjacent properties etc? Images of our houses are everywhere regardless of private roads etc whether we like it or not.

[Prudie]

Yes my car registration was visible once, I used the email link and although can't remember exact number of days it took but it was fuzzed out quite quickly.

[pipdawg]

Thanks for your answers but some of you are missing my point. I agree that it is acceptable for a private property to be photographed from the public highway. This happens all of the time of Google Street View. However, the camera car drove 200 yards up my farm drive, continually filming - he was trespassing, which I can forgive him for, as long as the photos are removed. Just think how you would feel if the car had driven onto your private property and done the same

[jno]

my house isn't on Street View. It used to be but someone's had it removed (not me); so it can be done, and that's just on a regular public street.

This (a few years old) says what to do, but maybe it's what you've done already

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2014/07/10/remove-house-google-street-view/

[pipdawg]

Maydup, johnk, hopkirk and mtbowels, please consider for a moment how you would feel if someone walked into your private back garden which was not visible from the public highway, took photographs and then published them on the Internet. This is the equivalent of what has happened to me. I really don't have a problem with photographs of private property taken from the public highway being published on Google Street View. You're all going off on a tangent here

[jno]

PS if you haven't got a "Private Road No Public Entry" sign up, maybe you should have.

[jno]

lol pip, my garden hose can be seen from space, like the Great Wall of China - it's on satellite view, lying on the lawn

[MTbowels]

Pipdawg, some of the comments made on here are purely down the fact that you've not been very clear about your property. You never mentioned you were on a farm drive and I visualised it like a private drive near me which is open at both ends to the public highway but is signposted that it's private in the sense they don't allow through traffic and maintain their own highway. Is your farm drive open at both ends? After all, most farm drives are cul-de-sacs and may have contributed to the incident.
I'm confused about this private back garden photography. Was that the only aspect of your property he photographed? Did he take any photos of the front of your property? No matter where you live you're on satellite imagery anyway.
I'm with jno on this and suggest you put prominent signs at the start of the drive to the effect it's a private road, state it's no entry and add that you do not permit cold callers. This Google guy probably used OS mapping which is useless in the way it classifies public/private highways. An unlocked gate might also help.

[pipdawg]

Okay. The reason I didn't state originally that it was a farm drive is because in my opinion is that that is irrelevant. A private drive is a private drive whether it be a farm or otherwise. The farm is indeed in a cul-de-sac at the end of a half mile, single track road. There is a no through road sign at the other end where the 'lane', as we call it, meets the main road. Having a 'private' sign where the public highway meets the private road would probably have avoided the problem. However, since 1997 when the road was split, there has never been an issue before. Because of the no through road sign at the top of the lane, it is very rare for traffic, other than visitors, to travel down the lane. Even if they inadvertently do, they just turn round and go away again. It's just not a problem. In fact there's never been a problem of any kind before - until the arrival of the Google camera car. I talked about the private back garden scenario as an extreme example - a case of photographs being taken from a place which is not accessible to the general public. In my case, the photos include images of my garden shed (no boundary between my drive and the shed), parked cars on my driveway, Calor gas storage tanks etc - the camera is actually 'mingling' with my private property, if that makes sense, as opposed to being in the distance, which is the norm. Anyway, I feel now we're just going round in circles. The outcome of my original question isn't how I'd envisaged. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who've sent very useful links to how I can carry with my task. Kind regards to all of you

[pipdawg]

My private drive has now been taken off Google Street maps. Thank you Google for listening to me - well done

[barry1010]

Good! They had no right going along your drive