Unhappy with what Google has about you? Remove yourself from Google search results

If you are worried that your personal information including number, address and email comes up on Google search, then you can relax. Google is making removing this information easier.

Google is making removing your personal information from search results easier. (Pixabay)

In the era of increasing digital intrusion into private life, there has been little anyone could have done to fight it. In fact, most of us have ourselves provided personal information to one website or the other. Whether it is a social media platform like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter or ecommerce websites like Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra, we have all added our name, phone number, address and email at the very least. But these are large websites which have strong privacy policies. But there are countless small and shady websites which do not protect user data. On top of that, many websites fall for security breaches and data leaks and often our personal information ends up online, including our bank accounts. And the problem worsens when it shows up in Google search results. But Google recognizes the issue and is making the process to remove such information easier.

Google makes removing personal information from search results easier

The Google ‘Results about you' feature has begun rolling out to users, according to a report by 9to5Google. The feature is designed to simplify the process of removing search results from Google that contain personal information of users. Google announced this feature in its I/O event earlier this year and said that it would be coming to the Google app later this year.

Users could remove their personal information earlier as well, but the process used to be more time consuming and complicated. In case a user found their phone number, address, or even financial information floating around, they would have to go to a Google support page and fill out a form mentioning the URL they wanted to be removed from the search result. Needless to say, it would take a considerable amount of time for Google to verify the form and take action.

With the new ‘Results about you' tool, users will be able to make the request for removal directly from the search page. Users can simply click the three dots next to the URL text and access the ‘About this result' page. From there, just clicking on the ‘Remove result' option will begin the process to remove the page.

The tool also has an option to let users track their removal requests. Users can go to the Google app and click on their profile picture to pop open the ‘Results about you' screen where they can monitor the status of their requests directly. According to 9to5Google, this screen will also allow users to add new requests for search result removal as well.

Do note that this process just deindexes the information showing on Google search results. People can still visit the website by typing the URL and access the information.