Not just any Russian dude, of course; according to Wikipedia, the personal paradise Google have blurred belongs to the Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller. The chairman of Russia's largest company and the world's biggest natural gas producer; so, a pretty big deal. And probably a tad unpopular, since this is evidently a safety precaution. So what makes this guy different to the rest of us? Do we need this overriding power to convince Google to blur our own homes? Absolutely not, is the answer. Anyone can do it, and here's how: Simply type your address into Google Maps and bring up the street view of your property. Look to the bottom right hand corner of the screen and click the icon labelled 'Report A Problem.' There you are free to blur your house, your face, your car, or the neighbour's dog doing his business on the lawn. According to Google's privacy and security information, they should deal with this promptly:
"We provide easily accessible tools allowing users to request further blurring of any image that features the user, their family, their car or their home. In addition to the automatic blurring of faces and license plates, we will blur the entire car, house, or person when a user makes this request for additional blurring."
Pretty cool, huh? There's no denying how chilling it is seeing your car on the drive, the ornaments in your windows, for the entire world to see: so it's only right we can all report it as inappropriate. Try it for yourself, regain your privacy, beat the boss, and report your blurry triumphs back to base in the comments below.
