Millions across the UK have been warned to change our Google Maps settings to protect themselves.

In the past police have warned that online mapping tools can be useful to criminals planning attacks, but Google Maps has a tool that can protect your information.

If you don’t want aspects of your home being visible on the website, you can have them blurred out by Google.

This could be a house name, registration number, faces or other objects.

Bournemouth Echo:

All you have to do to request this is search your home address using Google Maps.

Once you have a photo of your home in front of you through street-view, you will see three small dots in the left corner of your screen.

Clicking these will allow you to request details to be blurred out.

Simply select “Report a Problem” which will allow users to report an inappropriate street view.

As well as being used to blur personal details in the image, it can also be used to report any issues with the quality of an image.

All you need to do in order to make the report is provide your email address.

How to find out what Google knows about you

In response to a TikTok trend asking users what obscure facts they know because of their job, digital marketer and TikTok user @tiktoktrishkabob caused a huge stir on the video platform.

She said: “So, I’m a digital marketer, and I don’t think anybody realises just how invasive Google is.

“And if you’ve ever thought: 'Huh, this is a weird ad for me to be seeing' there’s actually a website that you can go to, to see all of the assumptions Google has made about you based on your previous searches.

“As long as you’re logged into a device that’s logged into your Google account, type adssettings.google.com into the search bar.

“And here, you’ll be able to see every assumption Google has made about you, and why you see the ads that you see.”

In the video she goes through the assumptions that Google has about her, stating that it has her age range, gender identity and parental status correct.

 “If you have ever Googled it, it’s somewhere in here.

“You can edit specific factors, like I’m not even quite sure what microblogging is, and you can also turn off ad personalisation altogether. Hooray Big Brother.”

She explained you can turn off ads for anything that you see in your list. All you need to do is click it and you’ll have the option to turn it off.

You can also turn off ad personalisation all together - the option is available at the top of the web page.