Google is making it easier to remove and update Search results that contain your personal information. The company’s “Results about you” tool for detecting personal information like addresses and phone numbers that appear in Search has been updated to make it “easier than ever” for users to sign up and for removals to be requested directly on the Search page.
The Results about you tool can help people proactively monitor what sensitive information is appearing in Search results for anyone to find. You register by giving Google the name, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses that you want it to scan for. (Google says your contact data “is not shared or used to personalize your experience across other Google products.”) You’ll then be notified when your data is detected so you can request removal.
The tool was previously hidden away unless you were using the Google app — on mobile web and desktop it was buried deep within the History settings under Google user accounts. It’s also only currently available to users in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, France, Sweden, Thailand, India, and Indonesia, but will be expanded to more countries in the future.
Clicking on the three-dot menu next to results in Google Search will now display a “remove this result” option that users can click on to more quickly request removal, and understand what kind of information is eligible for deletion. Three request options will appear once opened: personal information, which includes the doxxing content outlined on Google’s help page; legal removals to flag illegal content like copyright infringement and child abuse; and requests to refresh outdated Search results.
The latter is a new feature for situations where users have had their information updated, corrected, or removed from a website but Search results haven’t reflected those changes. Upon selection, Google will be prompted to recrawl the website linking to the Search result and update its information.
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