Google’s killing off its dark web report because users didn’t know what to do with it

When security experts warn you to not reuse the same passwords over and over, and to frequently change the ones you are using, they’re not just considering some theoretical risk. Data breaches frequently expose our private information to hackers, and all too often that info gets passed around on the dark web, ready to be exploited. A couple years back, Google introduced dark web reports to let us know what personal details might be floating around out there — and now they’re about to go away.

Google shares that dark web reports are going away in two months. Our first deadline is January 15, after which Google will stop monitoring the dark web for user data in breaches. You’ll still be able to view your existing reports for another month, but on February 16 Google shuts things down for good, deleting all your report information (Thanks: muku on Telegram).

When we first got them, dark web reports were a premium feature exclusive to Google One subscribers, before Google expanded access to everyone. In theory, that sounded like a really useful idea, empowering users to take steps based on the knowledge not just of what information of theirs had been compromised, but what’s been associated together — in my own report, I saw usernames connected with email addresses that I wasn’t aware anyone but me knew about.

Apparently not everyone found that kind of raw data so useful, because in announcing the end of dark web report monitoring, Google really focuses on problems users had about what to do with all this:

While the report offered general information, feedback showed that it didn’t provide helpful next steps. We’re making this change to instead focus on tools that give you more clear, actionable steps to protect your information online. We’ll continue to track and defend you from online threats, including the dark web, and build tools that help protect you and your personal information.

It’s always frustrating when Google takes away a useful tool, but we’ll concede that the logic there does hold up, and this was not a report that was the most user-friendly. And like the company says, it’s not like it’s turning its back on monitoring the dark web for threats — it’s just no longer going to provide this specific report.

Did you look up your info on Google’s dark web reports while they were around? Have you found the data useful, and will be sad to lose it? Tell us about your experiences down in the comments.