Privacy and online security go hand in hand. And when you use the internet, it's important to be in control of what you find about yourself on it. Newly, Google makes it possible to remove personal contact information such as phone numbers, physical addresses and e-mail addresses from search results.
The company said it is making this change to protect users from "unwanted direct contact or even physical harm." Previously, Google made it possible to request the removal of certain specific types of information, but the new policy represents an even broader effort to help protect users' personal data. Until now, you could request, for example, the removal of bank account or credit card numbers, but now you can do the same with phone numbers and addresses, not just e-mail accounts.
Gallery
The change comes amid a surge in Internet fraud, which cost consumers $5,8 billion last year, a 70% increase over the previous year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. A large part of these frauds are committed through online scams, phone solicitations and identity theft. "The Internet is constantly evolving. Informace are appearing in unexpected places and being used in new ways, so our policies and protections must evolve as well,” says Google in its press release.
Removing information can also protect people from doxxing. In that case, they are personal informace (typically emails or home or business addresses) shared publicly with malicious intent. Google also recently introduced a new policy that allows teens and children under 18 or their parents or guardians to ask Google to remove their photos from search results (requesting images to be removed can be on this page).
You could be interested in
How to ask Google to remove your phone number and other personal information
To begin the process of "deleting" your information, simply visit these google pages intended for that. The page is called Request to delete your personal data on Google and use the options below to contact Google with your request.
The first menu asks you what you want to do. Here you can choose to remove the information you see in Google search or prevent information from being displayed in Google search. Next, you write where you are informace, that you want to remove, and if you have contacted the site owner about it. For this, the variants are also listed here, if yes or no.
You could be interested in
After sending, you will receive an automatic reply confirming receipt of your request. If any are missing informace, you will be asked to complete them. Furthermore, Google will inform you if it takes any action on your initiative. However, Google warns that removing content from search results does not mean that it will not appear on the Internet. To ensure they are all yours informace deleted from the entire Internet, you must contact the website where your informace appear and ask this company to remove them.
