Finding your private information on Google can be worrying, especially when it’s personal, such as your home address, or your personal contact info. Not only is your personal info out in the open for everyone to see, but you’re also leaving yourself open to scams and identity theft.
Fortunately, Google is rolling out a set of new tools and protective features meant to help its users. Included in this is a way to remove Google Search results about yourself. Here’s how you can do so.
Google Makes Managing Personal Information Much Easier
Back in 2022, Google launchedResults about you, a tool that allows you to get better control over your personal information, and how easy it is to be found online. In short, this tool helps you remove any search results from Google that contain your personal phone number, home address, or email address.
In August 2023, Google announced viaThe Keywordthat it updated and improved the tool by integrating it into Google Search. These updates, among other things, will allow users to keep track of your personal info when it appears in search results. More so, users will also receive alerts whenever Google Search finds entries containing your personal info.
How to Remove Unwanted Information About Yourself From Google’s Search Results
Before using the Results about you tool, you’ll first need to have a Google account. For those of you who don’t have one, go ahead andcreate a new Google accountright away.
To start removing Google Search entries that contain your personal information, follow these steps:
Your request will be reviewed by Google staff, and you’ll be notified in your Results about you dashboard whether your request was approved or denied. This might take a few days, and there’s no guarantee that your request will be approved.
What You Should Know About the “Results About You” Tool
While incredibly useful, the Results about you tool still comes with plenty of limitations that you should be aware of when using it:
Google Allows Users’ Private Info to Remain Private
The updates and improvements that Google brought to Results about you allow people to gain better control over their private information, and how it can end up appearing in random search results. It may not be perfect, and each request can take several days to resolve, but at least you can now rest easy knowing that strangers will no longer have easy access to your address or contact info.
In fact, we recommend that everyone includes using the Results about you tool in their online privacy habits to help better protect their online information. But there are plenty of other habits you should verify to follow in order to protect your information.
