A new Search tool to help Australians control their online presence
Have you ever searched for your name to see how you show up online? You’re not alone. To give you greater peace of mind about your online footprint, we’re rolling out the new “Results about you” tool in Australia from today.
With this feature, you can easily request the removal of search results that contain your personally-identifiable information in Search results, such as your personal phone number, home address or email address, right from the Google app. You can also opt-in to alerts if new results with your contact information appear, so you can quickly request their removal.
You can also have Google notify you if your contact info appears on Search, and request to remove results you’d rather keep private. In the Google app, you can monitor the status of your removal requests.
It’s important to note that when we receive removal requests, we will evaluate all content on the web page to ensure that we're not limiting the availability of other information that is broadly useful, for instance in news articles. And of course, removing contact information from Google Search doesn’t remove it from the web, which is why you may wish to contact the hosting site directly, if you're comfortable doing so.
At Google, we strongly believe in open access to information, and we also have a deep commitment to protecting people — and their privacy — online. For many years, people have been able to request the removal of certain sensitive, personally identifiable information from Search that could cause harm — for example, in cases of doxxing, or information like bank account or credit card numbers that could be used for financial fraud.
Google supports the Australian Government's commitment to combat doxxing – which involves publicly providing personally identifiable information about someone online without their consent. The ‘Results About You’ feature, rolling out in Privacy Awareness Week, is another significant step to help address the issue – giving Australians more tools to easily protect their safety and privacy online.
