A screenshot from Google’s Results About You feature.
Dealing with personal data leaks can be extremely stressful and anxiety-inducing — especially if it puts your privacy and safety at risk. This is why Google is making it even easier to delete personal information from Search.
The company has unveiled upgrades to its Results About You service — designed to give people more control over personal data indexed by Search — that make it more effortless to protect your personal information.
Thanks to the revamped user interface, Results About You will now let you request removal of or updates to pages containing your personal information in a matter of a few clicks, Google said in an announcement.
Here’s how you can do it:
How To Remove Google Search Results With Results About You
For starters, head over to Results About You and make sure you sign up for the service.
You’ll be asked to fill in a few details about yourself like your name, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses that you want Google to scan the internet for. Don’t worry, that information won’t be shared or used to personalize your experiences across other Google products.
Once you’ve done that, Results About You will Search for any personal information that you might want removed and send you notifications should something that fits the criteria pop up.
The latest update also lets you submit removal or refresh requests straight from Google Search. Simply click on the three dots next to a result and follow the steps.
A screenshot of Results About You showing how potential Google Search results containing your info … [+]
Besides removal or update requests, you’ll see a third option: the ability to seek deletion of potentially illegal content about yourself, including copyright infringement and child abuse.
That’s it. Google will then review and process your requests.
Google Search’s Results About You Still Has Limited Availability
Unfortunately, Results About You hasn’t been rolled out globally yet. So some of you might be welcomed with a warning that the service isn’t available in your region.
Currently, Google Search supports the feature in U.S., U.K., Ireland, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, France, Sweden, Thailand, India and Indonesia.