Category: Apple

RAYMOND OGLESBY @RaymondOglesby2
May 14, 2024

This is for devices using Google Search. Works best on a desktop/laptop. Screenshots are from Windows 10

Table of Contents

Learn When Your Information Appears
Submit a Manual Request
Illegal Activity
Find Your Results
Step 1: Find Results About You
Step 2: Review the Results About You
Step 3: Request Removal of Results About You
View Your Results
Step 1: Report URLs on Google Search
Step 2: Check for Email Confirmation
Step 3: Monitor the Status of Your Requests
Policy Requirements for Removal Requests
Invisible? Not!
Email Notifications
Related

Looking for more privacy? Here’s how to remove your phone number, email, physical address, and lots of other personal data about yourself from Google’s search results.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is what every bad actor wants. If they get their hands on it, it can be used to rob, impersonate, or even endanger you on the internet and in the real world. One of the prime places to find it is via Google, and while Google can not stop that info from appearing on other websites, you can try to remove it from search results. 

Let’s explore how to get notified when your PII appears in a search and how to tell Google to stop it from happening again. Like with other endless settings and features in Google, this is a complex process.

Learn When Your Information Appears

You are unable to tell Google to delete your info if the search is not even finding and displaying it. Google has an option to notify you when that happens. 

The spot to visit is called the Results About You activity page. You have to be logged into Google for it to work. Follow the prompts on the screen as Google asks you for your physical addresses, emails, and phone numbers. Tell Google how you want to be notified (email or push notification via the Google app). Then wait. Refer to the below images:

After a few hours, you should receive a report from Google on what’s turning up that’s yours PII-wise. You can also just go back to the Results About You page to check it. Plus, you can tick off the boxes next to any result you want to make sure is removed from the search. The status of your request will also be displayed (eventually). Just be patient.

Submit a Manual Request

The above is just your address/contact Info. Google will also let you request to remove other things online that you may find harmful. That includes:

• National/government ID numbers
• Bank accounts
• Credit card numbers
• Personal signatures
• Login info and credentials
• Medical records
• “Irrelevant pornography” (that is, explicit material somehow tied to your name)
• Login credentials
• Deepfake porn you may appear in against your will

You can request this without even having to prove that the data floating out there is a problem (with some exceptions).

The first stop is this Google Search Help page, which has a rundown of the options above but also shows the direct link to the request to remove your personal information from search. See the below image:

If you own the website displaying the information you do not want to show, Google spells out how to block a URL or specific site pages from Google search results.

Removing info requires that you know if it is appearing only in Google search results or in results on a separate website. If the latter, Google may not be very effective, and it asks whether you have contacted the site’s owner first to remove the information. It also suggests ways to get in touch with a site.

Maybe you do not want to get in touch with a site or you have already tried and were unsuccessful. Google asks you a series of questions, such as what type of info you would like removed, narrowing it down to one specific thing when possible. It will also ask whether the content is being shared with the intent of doxing you; that’s when someone shares your PII with the intent to harm you. You may need to enter a lot of data, but the more detail you provide, the less likely it is that Google will have to follow up with you before nuking the PII in search results.

Google says if your PII appears on a live page you control and you have already updated it to remove the information, it should eventually go away. But the page might be cached by the search engine, so you should request to remove outdated web pages. You will need specific URLs for the pages; you can submit up to 1,000 on the form. See the following images:

Illegal Activity

If you see something in a Google search that’s illegal, such as potentially criminal content, intellectual property infringement, or Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), Refer to the below image:

You can also go to Google’s Report Content for Legal Reasons. Google has a whole video about it.

Find and Remove Personal Contact Info in Google Search Results

When you use Results about you, you can find out if your personal contact info, like your home address, phone number, or email address shows up in search results.

Find Your Results

Step 1: Find Results About You

1. Go to the Results about you page.

• In the Google App:

1. Log in to the Google app.
2. To open the menu, click your Google Account avatar.
3. From the menu, select Results about you.

• From the mobile web or desktop:

1. Log in to your Google Account.
2. To open the menu, click your Google Account avatar.
3. From the menu, select Manage your Google Account > Data & privacy.
4. In the History settings, select My Activity >  Other activity.
5. Scroll down to the Results about you section, and select Manage results about you.
6. Select Get started or Settings.
7. Enter your name and the contact info that you want to find in search results.
8. Google uses this information to check for search results that show this info.

• You can also enter these types of contact info in the form:

1. Nickname
2. Maiden Name
3. Multiple personal phone numbers
4. Multiple addresses
5. Multiple email addresses
6. Set up notifications

You can choose to receive email notifications if Google finds results with your contact info. You can also receive push notifications through the Google app. If you have notifications on, you will receive a notification to let you know if the results match your info. After that, you will receive a new notification when new results are found that match your contact info.

Step 2: Review the Results About You

If you have notifications on, you will get a notification within a few hours to let you know if any search results match your name and personal contact info. You can also check directly from the Results about you page.

To view your results, from the Results about you page, go to the Results to review tab.

When you select a result, you can learn more about it, like the website it’s from, or the contact info it contains.

Step 3: Request Removal of Results About You

If you see a result that you would rather keep private, you can request to remove it from search results.

To remove more than one result, select the checkbox next to each result, then click Request to remove.

To remove a single result, select the result to expand, then click Request to remove.

If you do not want to start a removal request, you can also choose Mark as reviewed.

Google considers some results valuable to the public. These can include government or educational websites, online newspapers, or business websites. If your result is from a website like this, you won’t find a Remove result option.

To confirm your removal request and for status updates when your request has been reviewed, you will get an email. You can check the status of your requests anytime from Results about you under Removal requests.

View Your Results

Step 1: Report URLs on Google Search

1. On desktop or mobile, log in with your Google Account.

• You will get an update on the status of your requests through the email address associated with your account.
• If you want to request the removal of a result for someone else, or if you do not want to log in, you can use the detailed removal request form instead.

2. On Google Search, search for your name.

• To find results that show your personal contact info, you can search for your name and your home city, or your name and your home address.

3. To reach About this result panel, click More.
4. Select Remove result > It shows my personal contact info.
5. Go through the reporting flow.
6. Submit your request.
7. After you submit your request, select I’m done.

Tip: Make sure to enter your name and the personal contact info shown on the result page exactly as they appear on the result. For example, if the result shows:

Additional Information

• Your nickname: Enter your nickname in the form.
• An old home address: Enter the old home address in the form.
• More than one type of contact info: You only need to include one type of contact info in your request form. This includes your phone number and your home address.
• More than one type of contact info: You do not need to submit multiple removal requests for the same URL.

Step 2: Check for Email Confirmation

Within the next few hours, you will receive an email confirmation that your request was submitted.

Step 3: Monitor the Status of Your Requests

Click the Results about you page, to check if your request is:

• In progress
• Approved
• Denied
• Undone

After you select a specific request, you can check details like the:

• Link to the page you flagged
• Submission day and time
• Request ID
• Contact info you flagged on the page

Tip: There may be a delay between when a request is approved and the result is removed from search results. You can check if your info is already removed within a few hours after it was approved.

Policy Requirements for Removal Requests

After you submit a request, Google will review it to make sure it meets policy requirements for removal. Requests must meet the following policy requirements:

• The contact info displayed on the result has to be your personal info. To request to remove professional info that’s been posted with the intent to harm you, use the detailed removal request form.
• You do not control the info yourself. This means contact info that you can remove from the internet yourself, like info on a social media page or a personal blog that you own.
• As Google Search seeks to provide users with useful info, it won’t remove info that’s valuable to the public. For example, Google won’t remove results for web pages that are owned by:
  • Educational or government institutions
  • Newspapers

See the following image for your request being processed:

For now, just wait while Google processes the request. When Google has finished the Removal requests status will change. Refer to the below image:

You will receive a Request approved notification. Just click the See details button for additional information. Refer to the below image:

Your removal request details are now displayed. See the following image:

Invisible? Not!

Scrubbing the search engines of your digital footprint is not the same as taking it off the internet. Search engines did not put the info out there; they indexed it, grabbing the data from some other source. They might snag it again from a different source.

You are never going to be completely free of search engine results unless you delete any traces of yourself and get offline entirely. You could always try services such as Abine’s DeleteMe or other personal data removal services and many others, which do what they can to prevent your information from being used by data brokers, though for a subscription fee.

Until you delete all your old email accounts, stop using mobile apps and location services, quit social media, stop online shopping, and never sign into anything ever again, some entity will have something on you. Trying to hide something only makes it easier to find.

Email Notifications

Once you have set up Google Search based on your criteria, you will receive emails regarding new search results about you. Refer to the below image:

-Source: Google

Related

Set Up a Dark Web Monitoring Profile

Disclaimer

Technology is always changing. Rarely is there static tech for smartphones and desktops. Thus, the contents of this post are only valid at the time of writing. Blog posts older than six months may have directions incompatible with your device or OS. Hopefully, older post content will continue to work as advertised. Thank you for reading TechSavvy.Life for Technology at Work For You.

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