With most of us spending a significant part of our days online, we tend to share some personal information on the different platforms we spend time on. Access to our personal data is possible thanks to search engines like Google that aggregate information and data from different sources. You may not want this information to be accessible through Google for one reason or another.
The good news is that you can easily submit a request to remove your personally identifiable information (PII) from Google search results.
Some of the information that Google removes from search results might include phone numbers, email addresses or any other information that might be used in identity theft.
Steps to follow
- Go to Google Support website here.
- Select the “Remove information you see in Google Search” option.
- Within the section titled “The information I want removed is,” choose “In Google’s search results and on a website.”
- When asked if you have contacted the website’s owner, choose “No, I prefer not to.”
- Choose the type of personal information you’d like removed from Google Search results.
- Enter the information requested, including link(s) to the pages with the content you want to be removed.
How to remove personal information using the Google App
Google recently rolled out an update that allows people to remove their personal information from search results using the app. The option is still being tested so it is not available for everyone. To find the option:
- Launch the Google mobile app.
- Tap your profile icon in the top-right corner of the app.
- Look for “Results about you” in the menu that opens.
- Tap through the prompts presented within the tool to provide Google with all the information needed to remove the search results containing your private data.
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