Criminals use Zillow to plan robberies. Below we explain how to dismantle your house in 10 minutes.

The entire country is watching the Nancy Guthrie case. When the alleged kidnapping occurred, I was curious. How long would it take me to find your home address and cell phone number on a people search site?

About 30 seconds.

PREVENT FOREIGN APPS FROM COLLECTING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

Then I pasted his address into Zillow and saw photos of his house. I could compare what I found to the video of a home tour done on the Today show. I could see the design. The entry points. The windows. Where their furniture was. Imagine if I were a criminal armed with that information.

Here’s the thing: I’m not a hacker. I used free websites that anyone can access from their couch.

This is happening everywhere

In Scottsdale, Arizona, two teenagers dressed as delivery drivers broke into a couple’s home. They duct-taped and assaulted the owners, seeking $66 million in cryptocurrency. They obtained the victims’ address from strangers in an encrypted application.

In Delray Beach, Florida, thieves smashed a retired couple’s sliding glass door. The attackers obtained his home address from leaked personal data. That team struck victims in several states.

Police in Riverside, California, confirmed that detectives routinely find Zillow and Redfin searches on phones seized from arrested robbery suspects.

A former NYPD detective put it bluntly: Today’s burglars can search your house from their chair with a cup of coffee and get better information than they could sitting outside with binoculars.

HOW TECHNOLOGY IS USED IN THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE DISAPPEARANCE OF NANCY GUTHRIE

The numbers are scary

Zillow’s database covers more than 160 million homes. Listing photos often remain online long after the home is sold. That means photos of your home, taken when you listed it three, five, or even 10 years ago, could still be there now showing every room, every door, every window, and exactly where your security cameras are mounted.

Google Street View covers 10 million miles of roads around the world. Criminals use it to check vehicles parked in driveways, search backyards, and plan escape routes. In some areas, police say thieves are even using drones to peer into windows and look for dogs.

Anyone can type their name into a free people search site and get their home address in seconds. Then they plug it into Zillow and see your floor plan, entry points, window types, and where security cameras are located.

Unless you are selling your home, delete your photos. Now.

Get it all down in 10 minutes.

These steps may look a little different depending on your device, app version, or browser. If it’s not exact, snoop around. The option is there.

red fin: Log in to redfin.com. Go to the Owner Control Panel. Select your home > Edit Photos > Hide Photos from Listing > Save.

real estate agent.com: Go to realtor.com/myhome. Claim your home, then select it in My Home > Delete Photos > Yes, Delete All Photos.

Google Street View: Open Google Maps on a computer. Find your address, go to Street View, and then click “Report a Problem” (bottom right). Place the red box over your house. Under Request Blur, select “My Home.” Deliver. FYI, once it blends, it’s permanent. Good.

For advice: Ask your old listing agent to take photos from the MLS. Once they leave the MLS, feeder sites eventually follow.

Also, while you’re at it, search for yourself on people search sites like Spokeo, WhitePages, and BeenVerified. Most allow you to opt out. It takes some time per site, but it disrupts the first step criminals use to find you. The best thing is to sign up for Incogni, sponsor of my national radio show and podcasts.

If you’re not selling, there’s no reason for the Internet to take a virtual tour of your home. Download it today.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE News APP

I guess you could say that Zillow offers everyone an open house. The problem is that you never sent the invitations.

Do you know anyone who has purchased a home in the last few years? Forward this. Their listing photos are probably still online and they have no idea. You can sign up for my 5-star rated newsletter on my website, Komando.com.

Copyright 2026, WestStar Multimedia Entertainment. All rights reserved.