Hello Local Guide community!
I have been participating in local guide for years and I have loved it. I had a question about a fairly popular photo on a post I made about a year ago. There is a worker in the side of the photo that I didn’t notice that has now reached out to me to ask to have the photo taken down. What would you do in that situation? Is not taking it down illegal? How would you navigate this? Could it just be cropped by someone at Google instead to remove him?
Thanks!
Hello Montanojordan!
I am pretty new to the Local Guides Community and I am loving it so far!
In regard to you questions, in my opinion I think it would be the right thing to do to remove the photo if the worker requested it. From what I know removing a photo is pretty easy. Although I have not varified this myself here is how you can remove the photo:
Delete a photo View or delete photos from Search
Photos added from Google Search can be viewed and deleted using Google Maps.
Your contributions.
Delete this photo.Note: Deleting photos can take several minutes. If you don’t see your changes right away, try closing “Your contributions” and re-opening it.
Once you remove the photo you could blur or crop out the worker and repost the photo.
Hopefully I have been answer your questions, and that this method will work for you!
Hi @Montanojordan ,
I can imagine what you are going through at this moment. We surely don’t want to land in such situations when we know our intentions are not to hurt anybody’s feelings.
Firstly, if the photo still existed or you can locate it under Your contributions - photos than try deleting it. Wait for it to be fully removed. Once confirmed than you can upload with the necessary changes.
This may change the views on the photo because it will start all over again according to me.
I don’t think this is illegal because you are the owner of the photo. Secondly, I wouldn’t like to hurt anybody’s feelings and would apologize and remove the photo immediately.
You can ask a Google moderator for help and guidance. They are experts and will surely help you.
Hope I was able to answer your questions to your satisfaction.
Regards,
Harpal
Thanks for the advice from you two!
I plan on removing the photo. I found it and re-cropped it. The only sad thing is it is the leading photo for the business, it’s the default view, and has over 30,000+ views. Is there any way you know of to just have it cropped without losing all that?
Best
@Montanojordan that is definitely a lot of views and would really suck to lose all of them. I don’t think there is a way to keep the views if you remove the photo because if you read the disclaimers that come with deleting your photos it says that all of the views will be lost. As @Harpal had mentioned you may want to reach out to a Google Moderator because I’m sure they have the ability to make changes to the photos. If that is not the case, although no the ideal option, you may just have to bite the bullet and remove the photo and repost the edited one.
30000+ sind recht wenige views. Wir löschen hier Fotos mit einer Million + views.
Grundsätzlich machen wir Photos mit Menschen. Aber die gehen nur Online wenn wir eine Unterschrift haben also ein Einverständniserklärung ind jeder kann dieser auch nach Jahren widersprechen.
Die neue Verordnung in der EU besagt, daß wenn derjenige nicht ausfindig gemacht werfen kann, der ein Foto online stellt und missbraucht dass Google oder Facebook haften. Hat ein Foto so viele Views gehe davon aus, dass andere es nutzen. Dann bist du haftbar. Zum beispiel ist das verwischen des Gesichtes wie es Google macht nicht ausreichend.
How would I reach a moderator?
@Montanojordan one Google Administrator that I see pretty often on Local Guides Connect is @TraciC . I would try reaching out to her as a start and see what options she would suggest. The best way to do this is to click on the name I provided in this post. This should direct you to here Connect profile page and if you go all the way to the bottom of the page there should be a section titled “Contact Me.” In this section, there are two options for you to choose from “Add Friend” and “Ignore.” Simply click “Add Friend” and then you should give you the ability to direct message TraciC and ask about any possible solutions she might suggest.
Hi @Montanojordan ,
You can reach one of our Google Moderators by tagging any one that is listed in the “Meet the Google Moderators” post.
https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/Help-Desk/Meet-the-Google-Moderators/ba-p/928872
HI @pourchotb ,
Please be noted that Google Moderators do not read private messages due to volumes of messages they receive.
Oh, my mistake! Thank you for the clarification @YK1001 !
Hello, @Montanojordan . After reading about your situation I thought you might be interested in reading this particular paragraph of the Privacy section in Maps User Contributed Content Policy Help of Google Maps:
Be a good neighbour and don’t publish photos or videos in which people are identifiable without their permission. This is particularly important in sensitive locations, where people may object to publishing their image.
Since the person on the discussed photograph does not agree to be in the photo, you are free to delete it as it currently is and upload it again after cropping it yourself. Yes, the view count will start again as @Harpal mentioned, but I wouldn’t worry about that if I were you. I’m sure you can take better shots in other searched locations.
Thank you!
Photo has been deleted and re-uploaded with a new crop.
I appreciate your help and this amazing community.
Thank you for the quick reaction, @Montanojordan .
Just to note, @pourchotb , in future when having issues or just a question always start by tagging someone mentioned in Meet the Google Moderators. We are here and happy to help you out.
All is well that ends well 
.
I’m happy that you made a wise decision and thank you @IrrPavlova for your expert advice.
@Montanojordan , I’m sure that you photos will again get high views.
Regards,
Harpal
@IrrPavlova Thanks for the advice! I’m brand new to all of this and was eager to help. In the future I will definitely apply your advice when needed!
Today it is possible to re-crop photos uploaded to Google Maps without losing your views. You have to upload via Google Photos. After the upload to Maps, you can still edit the image in Google Photos. Make sure not to save as a new copy if prompted. If you don’t see the change in Google Maps you should clear cache and data or test on another device where the image is not stored in the cache.
Cheers