How to Use Google’s New Privacy Tool to Scrub Your Personal Info From Search Results

Thanks to online databases and the long memory of the Internet, it can be dauntingly easy for someone to find your personal information, from an address to your alma mater. If you prefer a more discreet online profile, Google may be able to help.

According to Gizmodo, the search engine recently launched a tool called Results About You, which allows users to request that their personal information be removed from search results. To use the service, you need to log into the Google app, tap on your profile picture and click Results about you in the drop-down menu. From there, you can ask Google to delete your address, phone number, and email address when people search your name.

You might not see the option right away as Google is still in the process of rolling it out for iOS, Android, and web users. You can also see the About This Result option for a specific search result by clicking the three dots icon next to the page. From there you can click Remove result. Google will accept a request to remove the page from search results if it contains personally identifiable information.

Danny Sullivan, Google’s public search liaison, told Gizmodo that the option was created in response to user requests for a simplified method of keeping certain private information out of search results. “Before we made the change, if you wanted personal information removed, you had to show doxxing,” Sullivan said. “But the common person says, ‘Well, I wasn’t doxxed. Do I have to be doxxed about just not having the stuff I’d rather not have?’ And our solution is, ‘No, you don’t.’ Anyone can easily have it removed. It really expands it to people who don’t necessarily have some level of concern about harm that they actually need to show… [they] would just feel more comfortable if it just wasn’t there for some reason.”

Google does not have a specific timeline for when they can honor a request, and there may be instances when they are unable to honor the request. However, the Results About You feature redirects users to other methods of removing other types of information, such as: B. Social security numbers or bank account numbers.

Keep in mind that a successful request to remove the page will only remove it from Google’s search results, not the web entirely. It stays on the page that contains the information and is likely to show up in other search engines.

[h/t Gizmodo]