Google is expanding the type of personally identifiable information that users can request to be removed from search results.
It now includes personal contact information as well as other sensitive information that may pose a risk to the user. We tell you what this Google policy update is about.
Google expands the type of personal data you can remove in search results
If you want to remove some personal information from a website, and the owner refuses to do so, you can use one of the options provided by Google for certain special cases.
Any user can ask Google to remove certain personal information from search results if this leads to specific harm. For example, having bank account information or credit card numbers removed to prevent financial fraud, identity theft, etc.
However, the type of personally identifiable information, which is included in this Google policy, does not cover all additional information that may contribute to becoming a victim of doxing or risk of identity theft.
A situation that the Google team is updating to include additional personal information within the deletion request. This includes personal contact information such as a physical address, a phone number, an email address, among others:
The policy also allows for the removal of additional information that may pose an identity theft risk, such as sensitive login credentials, when it appears in search results.
When a user submits a request to delete this type of personal data, Google starts an evaluation process, if your request meets all the requirements. A detail to keep in mind is that Google does not remove the information from the internet or delete it from the website, but rather prevents it from appearing in search results.
Depending on the evaluation result, the URL (where the personal data appears) may no longer be displayed for any type of query. For example, if it is about bank accounts or credit card numbers.
Or the URL may be removed from search results only when a query is made using the username or similar identifying information. This can happen, for example, if the rest of the web page displays content of public interest.
You can see in detail the entire process and how to make this request in the Google Help Center.
