At I/O 2022 in May, Google announced a new tool to streamline the process of removing Search results that contain your contact and other personal identifiable information (PII), and it’s now starting to go live.
Update 9/28: At Search On 2022, Google announced that “Results about you” is officially rolling out starting today.
Meanwhile, an upcoming feature will let you “opt into alerts if new results with your contact information appear so you can quickly request their removal.” These notifications are coming “early next year.”
Original 9/20: For some today, opening the Google app on Android and tapping your profile avatar in the top-right corner reveals a new “Results about you” menu item. This takes users to a page that explains how they can request Google remove Search results that contain phone number, home address, email, or other PII.
If you find something while browsing, click on the three-dot overflow menu that appears in the top-right corner of each result. The existing About this result panel opens with a new “Remove result” option appearing at the bottom of your screen.
After following that process, you can monitor the progress of a removal from Results about you. In addition to an “All requests” feed, you have filters like “In progress” and “Approved.” This page also lets you make a new request with a walkthrough that involves a “Why would you like to remove this result?” step. Options include:
- It shows my personal contact info
- It shows my contact into with an intent to harm me
- It shows other personal info
- It contains illegal info
- It’s outdated
Back at I/O, Google said it would be available in the coming months. It’s now appearing for the first users this evening with reports in Europe and the US, but this isn’t widely rolled out yet. The company previously explained how:
It’s important to note that when we receive removal requests, we will evaluate all content on the web page to ensure that we’re not limiting the availability of other information that is broadly useful, for instance in news articles. And of course, removing contact information from Google Search doesn’t remove it from the web, which is why you may wish to contact the hosting site directly, if you’re comfortable doing so.
You can also start a removal request from this page, which fully details Google’s removal policies for personal info.
More on Google Search:
- Google hosting Search On 2022 later this month
- Search letting you find and shop for train tickets, buses also coming
- Google Lens now lets you launch directly into a filter
Thanks RKBDI!
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