Blurring images on Mapillary

Mapillary allows anyone to blur a portion of an image via our web app via the Blur Editor.

With the blur editor, you are able to blur parts of an image that may have been missed by our blurring algorithm, or blur other information you feel to be private (i.e., your house). 

What should I blur?

From every request you submit, our algorithm can learn and improve. Therefore, it's important to submit a blur request with integrity.

What should be blurred:

• Faces
• Vehicle license plates
• Inappropriate or private parts of the image

What shouldn't be blurred:

• Whole people
• People from behind when the face is not seen
• Billboards, advertisements, brand labels
• Street, traffic and information signs

How to submit a blur edit request

To submit blur edits, select the triple-dot icon (...) when viewing an image on the Mapillary web, and then open the dropdown arrow next to "Advanced." Then, select "Edit blurs". You will enter the blur editor mode where you can add and review the blurs applied to the image.

The sidebar tracks blurs that are pending approval for the image you're currently viewing. 

If you want to add a new blur, click on the “Add new blurs” button, then draw a rectangle on the image to mark where the new blur should be. You need to also click on the “Approve” button to submit the new blur.

You can’t edit a blur’s shape or location so if you want to correct something, just reject the current blur and add a new one.

Admin review process

Blurs will get reviewed by a Mapillary admin before actual blurring on the image is updated. 

You can change your pending blurs as long as they haven’t gone through review yet. Once a blur gets reviewed, it moves to the "Confirmed blurs" section in the sidebar and cannot be changed anymore. Blurs that admins reject will not be listed any longer.

Due to cache, it may take up to 24 hours for the actual blurring to be updated on an image. Please allow a few days for your blur edits to take effect.