Having your personal information pop up online in various places can be quite annoying, especially if it’s things like your phone number and email address. It can be difficult to remove, too, as it could involve steps like contacting a website and then hoping they will remove the information themselves.
The good news is that Google decided a few years ago to help you remove your personal data from Search results. Google can’t exactly help you scrub third-party websites that list your data, but it can prevent them from appearing in your search results.
Google has upgraded the tool over the years, making Results about you a pretty straightforward weapon to use when protecting your privacy. These improvements and tweaks suggested we’d see similar usability upgrades in the future. The newest upgrade dropped on Wednesday, with Google now making removing your information from search results even easier than before.
The tool works by monitoring the web for the information you give Google, including names, personal contact information, addresses, email, and phone numbers. While you might not necessarily trust Google with even more personal data about you, this type of information won’t be used for ad purposes or profiles. Instead, Google only monitors the web to notify you when any of that information comes online.
While Google gave Results about you a usability upgrade a few years ago, the process should be even easier. That’s what Google is doing with its recent update. The company published a blog
to inform users about the Results about you changes.
Google redesigned the hub to make signing up “easier than ever.” It’s not the sign-up process that needs tweaking. More important is the ability to quickly request the removal of personal details. Thankfully, that’s what’s getting upgraded.
In the future, users who decide to protect their information with the Results about you page will be able to remove information straight from Google Search results. All you have to do is click the three-dot menu to submit a removal request:
It’s also now easier to request removals directly on Search. When you click on the three dots next to a result, you’ll see an updated menu that helps you understand what content is eligible for removal, and lets you submit a removal request in fewer clicks.
The tool also lets you update outdated search results, “like if you’ve had content about yourself removed or edited from a webpage, but Search has yet to reflect the latest changes in results.” The same three-dot menu lets you get the job done.
There is one downside to Results about you. It’s not available to worldwide users. You can take advantage of it if you’re a Google user from the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, France, Sweden, Thailand, India, and Indonesia. But more markets will be available soon.
You can get started with Results about you at this link, assuming the service is available to you.
