Google Maps cameras capture people going about their everyday life.
Often, these photos reflect scenes we see all the time: people on their way to the shops, or travelling to work.
This photo of a woman walking down a beach wearing a red bikini should be one of these familiar images.
However, there is something very disturbing about the woman’s head.
Rather than the image showing an ordinary face and hair, it seems to be twisted and distorted.
There is a suggestion of a mouth and hair, but the head seems to have been shrunken so you cannot recognise any of it.
This is clearly not how the photograph was meant to look when it was taken by the Google Maps camera.
However, there is a simple explanation for why the photo may look like this.
Google Maps has a policy of blurring out faces on street view to help protect the privacy of interviews who have been captured on it.
Usually, this is done artfully by staff who are experienced in using Photoshop – so it is clear a blur tool has been used.
However, it seems this photo was not doctored quite so carefully, and the effect leaves the woman captured looking rather odd.
In fact she resembles one of the creepy aliens spotted on Google Maps – though her identity is certainly protected.
While Google Maps Street View automatically blurs out faces, people captured on the platform who want their whole bodies blurred out have to request it.
This is done simply through contacting the Google Maps team and asking them to make the further edits to the image.
This will be done when there is public indecency, too, like a woman photographed naked by Google Maps while standing on her porch in Miami.
The photo was soon updated to blur out the woman and protect her modesty.
