Google makes it easier to remove your personal information from search results

[Skye Jacobs]

In brief: As the dominant gateway to online information, Google's search engine has shaped how people access and discover content. However, search results sometimes expose personal data, raising privacy concerns. A recent update introduces a tool that gives users more control over what appears in search results.

Google updated a search engine tool called "Results About You" that it initially rolled out in 2022. Developers have made it more user-friendly and directly integrated its most helpful features into search results, including the ability to remove your personal data from them.

Users must first take a somewhat counterintuitive step to use the tool: inputting their personal information into the system. While potentially alarming for those aiming to protect their privacy, this process is necessary for the tool to identify and manage specific data in search results. However, regardless of whether it appears in search results, Google likely already possesses this information anyway.

One of the most significant improvements in this update is the integration of its key features directly into search results. While not prominently displayed, users can access Results About You through the three-dot menu next to each search result. This menu includes options to remove results containing personal information.

When requesting the removal of personal information, Google prompts users for additional details, a process that typically takes only a few seconds. The interface also accommodates non-personal removal requests, such as reporting illegal content. All requests are logged in the "Results About You" tool for later review. It's crucial to note that Google can only remove content from its search results, not the web pages containing it.

The redesigned hub allows users to monitor the status of their removal requests and offers additional features. For instance, users can request a data refresh if a search result contains inaccurate information. This option is useful when a website has removed personal data, but the search results haven't updated.

It is not the first Google has overhauled the tool. In 2023, it introduced a suite of features that made it more proactive, actively scanning search results for users' data. Developers added an expanded dashboard, giving users a more comprehensive view of their personal information in Search. It also added the ability to request the removal of nonconsensual explicit images from search results.

Google recommends regularly checking the Results About You hub. The tool automatically identifies new instances of previously highlighted personal data, allowing users to request removals quickly. Additionally, users can receive notifications via phone or email when new personal information emerges in search results.

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Google makes it easier to remove your personal information from search results

 

[AlexIL]

For entire generation its too little too late. Next generation learned on examples not to share anything. So yeah Google you knew exactly what are you doing when exposed a lot of information nobody should have access to. Now you're doing damage control but it's like burning down a forest and attempting to save last tree standing. Disgusting morons.

 

[p51d007]

Yeah, "remove" it from google, but there are other search engines out there that don't use google as a base. Mojeek, Yandex, Bing and others.

 

[RudyBob]

Yeah, "remove" it from google, but there are other search engines out there that don't use google as a base. Mojeek, Yandex, Bing and others.

Yep. But, when I want better search I have to use google.

 

[kinetix]

Yep. But, when I want better search I have to use google.

However, for image searches I am having better results with Bing than with Google.
Although I hate how Bing opens everything in separate tabs, damn it

 

[Win7user]

You, shouldn't have to remove any personal information in the first F place! I stay away from Google as much as I can. Google, is NOT your friend!

 

[netman]

"Users must first take a somewhat counterintuitive step to use the tool: inputting their personal information into the system. "

It's a trap...!

 

[Win7user]

"Users must first take a somewhat counterintuitive step to use the tool: inputting their personal information into the system. "

It's a trap...!

Yep. It, should be opt-in for saving any personal details. Not, the other way around. I realize, you can go to multiple pages and stop most of this personal data gathering on Google. But, like I said above, it should be opt in, to save any personal information, period! Google, knows full well, people are either obvious, or simply don't care, until someone's personal information gets out. I have always used fake names, and fake details. When, I got three different google email accounts well over a decade ago, you didn't have to include a personal phone number...