Study: Over Half of Canadians Use Google Maps to Snoop
For many of us, few apps are more integral to our daily life than Google Maps. Whether we’re checking our morning commute to see if there is additional traffic, punching in the location of a new restaurant we want to try, or (for some of us less direction-minded people) turning on navigation “just in case” we forget how to get to the grocery store we’ve been to two dozen times. Hey, we’re only human!
However, Google Maps offers information beyond turn-by-turn directions, and many people rely on those lesser-known services. Based on a survey of 1,000 Canadians, Google Maps has an even more significant impact on our daily lives than you might think.
Key takeaways:
- More than half of Canadians use Google Maps often for things other than directions
- Over 50% regularly use Google Streetview to snoop on other people’s homes
- 71% are concerned with Google’s travel data on them
Google Maps is More Than Directions
Nearly two-thirds of people surveyed will use Google Maps for things other than directions, although those activities do vary. The majority of people opt to use Streetview for various reasons, while about 1 in 10 people will look at local reviews or daydream about a life of luxury by virtually exploring fancy neighborhoods. Surprisingly, 15% of people will use it to take a virtual vacation to other locations. But Streetview users had some very interesting habits to share.
What Canadians Use Streetview For
More than 40% of people say that their primary Streetview usage is to see what their destination looks like in advance. There’s nothing worse than Google Maps stating that “You Have Arrived” and you can’t find the place you’ve arrived at! In fact, most of the main Streetview habits people discussed had to do with planning in advance.
Google Streetview is useful for a lot of reasons. Beyond showing you what your destination looks like, you can use it to understand the area around a location. If you’re planning a trip, you can use Google Streetview the way 13% of respondents say they do; use the app to explore the area you will be traveling to and see what surrounds the place where you will be. Booking a hotel? Check out the street it’s on to see if it has parking for a car or if it will be more accessible to Uber.
You can also use Google Streetview to find what is within walking distance of your destination. If you are meeting up with friends at a bar, see if there are restaurants around the area that you could grab a bite at after drinks. If you’re traveling, you can use Streetview to see if there are shopping or fun activities surrounding a central location.
And of course, you can use Google Streetview to, well, look at streets! If you’re moving and you want to get a real-time idea of what the area looks like, you can use Streetview to look at several addresses to get an idea of the street aesthetic.
Finally, 17% of people say they use Streetview to see where their friends or acquaintances live. This led us to a very interesting angle of how Streetview can be used.
Google Streetview’s Sneaky Searching Trends
Because you can use Google Streetview to look at whatever you’d like, we had a suspicion that some people might be taking advantage of the search option to see how their friends (or enemies) might be living. We weren’t sure whether to be surprised or amused to find out that for every question we asked about looking at people’s homes on Streetview, more than half the respondents admit to having done it.
Nearly two-thirds of people admit that they have used Google Streetview to look up what the home of a friend looks like… before they’ve been invited to visit! Over 70% of people admit that they’ve looked up the home of a significant other or an ex on Google Streetview. And 53% of people have looked up their boss’s home on Streetview.
Privacy Concerns for Google Maps
Considering all of the uses for Google Maps and the fact that so many people admit to using the app so they can look at other people’s homes, we were curious to find out if people had any privacy concerns about Google Maps. Beyond Streetview, the app collects data on users, which, when it comes to where we travel to can be a staggering amount of information.
The overwhelming feeling about privacy on Google Maps is that it bothers people, but not enough to stop using the app. In fact, only 3% of people say that they stopped using the app due to privacy issues. In addition, 68% of people said it doesn’t bother them that Streetview will show anyone a picture of their home. So, for anyone using the app to do some innocent snooping, most people won’t mind!
Google Maps provides invaluable navigation services as well as a whole host of other information to its users. While it might bring out the occasional private eye in us, overall, Canadians are committed to using the app… and let’s face it, we can’t go back to using physical maps!
Methodology
We surveyed 1,000 Canadians in June 2023 about how they use Google Maps. The average age of respondents was 35 years old. Half (50%) of respondents were men, 49% were female, and 1% identify as non-binary or other.
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