In Japan, the authorities warn of burglars who are scouting using Google Maps

Convenient… but sometimes dangerous. In Japan, the police fear to see more and more burglaries prepared online thanks to geolocation sites. Thus, for several weeks, police officers in the prefecture of Aichi, in the center of the country, have begun to give courses to the inhabitants so that they learn to hide their houses or their goods appearing in the Street View service of Google Maps.

The authorities of the city of Handa, south of Nagoya, are thus organizing real training sessions for residents and representatives of different communities to explain to them that they should now be particularly careful because of the considerable progress made in these free applications. Their target: Street View from Google, this very practical service which allows you to visualize a street, an address, a point of interest in a very real way. So precise that we can very clearly observe, thanks to an assembly of high definition photos, the businesses, the individual houses or even the cars parked in the street. And according to the Japanese police, thieves use it to scout. They would look at valuable vehicles, house entrances, the presence of barriers and possible routes to escape discreetly in case of trouble during the burglary.

Officers are also advising residents to take protective measures. For example, never leave a ladder lying around the front of the house. Thieves might spot it online and come up with the idea of ​​using it to enter through the floors. If it is difficult to measure a possible rise in crime thanks to Google Maps – the Japanese police themselves do not give any precise figures – the authorities, who always tend to overplay the security card for a population which is accustomed to live without major crime, are however based on an Indian news item. Local newspapers had indeed seized on a series of burglaries in the town of Belgavi, in the south-west of the country. The duo of thieves then confessed that they did all their scouting and preparations online before leaving to break into beautiful houses, seizing jewelry and beautiful cars identified in Street View.

And the Japanese police seem to have a miracle recipe to protect themselves from this kind of attack. In their training, the police explain that worried residents can force Google to delete all the photos of their homes or their car. The process is done online in the options of Google Maps. After answering a few questions and accepting the request, the American giant completely blurs the images of your home in just a few days.