Google Maps is one of those apps we use without thinking twice. Need directions? Open it. Looking for a restaurant? Open it. Trying to remember where you went three Tuesdays ago? Yep, Google Maps might know that too.

The convenience is great, but there’s a slightly creepy side to having an app that remembers your searches, tracks your routes, collects your reviews, and shows strangers what your house looks like.

Sometimes, the information we casually leave behind can reveal far more than we intended.

Here are 6 ways Google Maps can know, or accidentally reveal, much more about you than you might expect.

Google Street View is usually what you open when you’re trying to find a restaurant, check a route, or see what a neighborhood looks like. But for one man in Lima, Peru, it turned into something far more personal. In 2018, an anonymous man was searching Google Street View for directions to the popular Puente de los Suspiros, or “Bridge of Sighs”, when he stumbled across an image he definitely wasn’t expecting. There, sitting on a bench, was his wife with another man. The stranger rested his head on her lap while she appeared to stroke his hair. The image had been captured back in 2013, and the wife eventually admitted to having an affair. The man filed for divorce in 2018. Google Maps The bizarre discovery quickly sparked discussion online, with some commenters joking that technology had become an unexpected relationship detective. One person wrote, “Good, maybe people will become more honest,” while another warned, “Be careful what you are doing out on the street,” because you never know when a major tech company might be taking pictures. And that’s perhaps the strangest part of Street View: people usually think about the convenience of seeing a place online, not the possibility that they themselves might accidentally end up in the picture. Google does provide a way to request that sensitive imagery, including homes, be blurred on Street View. Google Maps

Donny Ryding had apparently made his wife a promise. In 2015, after suffering a heart attack, a man said he would quit smoking and clean up his diet. His doctors had warned him to make some serious lifestyle changes, and his wife, Julie, was determined to help. But Julie already had her suspicions. While cleaning out Donny’s car, she discovered a pile of Hobnob biscuit wrappers. When she confronted him, he denied knowing anything about them before storming out of the house. Later that same day, Julie heard that a Google Street View car had been driving around their neighborhood in Leasowe, Merseyside. Naturally, she decided to check. What she found was almost too perfect. There was Donny, standing outside their home with a cigarette in his hand. Julie told The Telegraph , “There was no denying it now we'd seen it.” arslan_shaukat777/TikTok (Not the actual image) Julie later joked that the Hobnob wrappers she had found in Donny’s car were part of the evidence against him, and the family eventually began referring to the whole incident as “Hobnob day.” Donny even spent the night sleeping on the couch. Still, Julie said he took the embarrassment in good spirits, and the family eventually turned the incident into a long-running joke at gatherings. A newer Street View image eventually replaced the original incriminating image, although the older version could reportedly still be accessed through Google Maps at the time of the report. Julie also couldn’t resist pointing out one detail. When Street View first launched, faces weren’t necessarily blurred in the same way they are today. Fortunately for Donny, she said, “there was no need to with him — he was covered by a cloud of smoke anyway!” Donny reportedly still smoked afterward, although he had cut down.

Google Street View doesn't always capture harmless snapshots of daily life. In one case in Argentina, its camera recorded something far more private. In 2017, a policeman was photographed bare in the yard of his home in a small Argentine town. He argued that he had been standing behind a roughly 6 ½ -foot wall, meaning he had a reasonable expectation of privacy. Yet the Street View camera captured him from behind, along with enough information to identify his home. Argentine television later showed his house number and street name, and social media shared them. The man said the image led to ridicule from neighbors and colleagues. A lower court initially rejected his claim, arguing that he was responsible for “walking around in inappropriate conditions in the garden of his home.” Google also argued that the wall was not high enough. An appeals court disagreed. The judges found that the image had been taken inside his private property, behind a fence taller than the average person. They described the intrusion as a serious violation of his dignity. Matheus Bertelli/Pexels (Not the actual image) , ai-assisted image They ultimately awarded him about $12,500 in damages. The ruling also highlighted an interesting problem with Street View privacy. Google already uses automated technology to blur identifiable faces and license plates. But the judges pointed out that protecting privacy cannot stop at someone's face when the rest of their body is clearly exposed. Google's own Street View policy says users can request additional blurring if an image shows their entire house, car, or body through the “Report a problem” tool. Once approved, blurring of a home is generally permanent. In 2014 in Quebec, Canada, another woman sued Google after a Street View camera caught part of her exposed breast while she was sitting outside her home. Although her face was blurred, she argued that people who knew her could still recognize her from the image, particularly because her home address, car, and other identifying details were visible. A Quebec small-claims court awarded her $2,250 plus interest and court fees. The judgment noted that blurring someone's face does not automatically make that person unrecognizable. Atlantic Ambience/Pexels (Not the actual image) , ai-assisted image

© Photo: mosselbay/TikTok (Not the actual image)