Google Now Allows to Remove Personal Information from Search Results

Business News IT News May 3rd 2022

Google recently declared that it is now allowing people to remove their personal contact information like – phone numbers, physical address, and email address, from its search results. The giant owned by Alphabet said on Wednesday that it is making some important changes to protect users from “unwanted direct contact or even physical harm.”

Google also mentioned previously it has allowed people to request the removal of some specific types of information, but this new policy represents a broader attempt to help protect the personal data of users. Before the release of this policy, people used to ask to remove their specific information, like bank account, or credit card numbers.
This change comes amid the surge in online fraud. The Federal Trade Commission reported that last year consumers had lost around $5.8 billion to scammers, which is a jump of 70% from the previous year. Most of those frauds were done through online scams, such as romance swindles, as well as through telephone solicitations, and identity theft.

Michelle Chang, global policy lead for search at Google, highlighted the new policy that the internet is always evolving. The huge information gets popped up in unexpected places and is getting used in new ways, that is why our policies and protections need to evolve as well.
Google also claimed that by removing the information people can be kept protected from doxxing, which is done when personal information like email addresses, or physical addresses are shared publicly with malicious intent, which encourages online harassment.
The company said, that recently it has rolled out a new policy that allows teens and children under the age of 18 or their parents or guardians to request Google to remove their images from its search results (Parents and children and request to remove images at this site).

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Let’s now see, how you can remove your personal information from Google searches :

What information Google will remove from its search results?

Google declared it will now remove the personal contact information including your phone number, email address, and physical address from its search results.
Previously, the company only allowed people to ask to remove their more confidential information, like social security numbers, bank account details, and credit card numbers, along with personal signatures’ images, and medical records.

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How to ask Google to remove my phone number and other personal information?

Visit the website Google to start the process. The page will ask you to provide information like an email address that will clarify the information that you want to get removed from Google’s search results.

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What happens after asking Google to remove my information?

Google will send you an automated response confirming that it has received your request. After that, the search platform will review the request and may ask for more information. For example, if the request made doesn’t have web address, then it will ask you to fix that and resubmit the application.

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Will Google give a green signal to all requests?

No. Google will evaluate all requests in order to make sure that it’s not limiting broadly useful content, such as news articles. It’ll also examine if the content is part of the public record, like Government files. In such a case, Google has said, that it won’t remove data from search results.

After Google removes my personal data, will it get vanished from the internet?

No. Google warns that removing content from its search result does not mean that the information will get vanished from all over the internet. In order to ensure that all information is scrubbed, you’ll also need to contact any hosting site where your information appears and ask that company to remove it.

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