UMVA has learned that a simple search on Google can reveal a shocking amount of personal information about you.
Type your name into Google Search and you may be surprised to see your old addresses, phone numbers, forgotten social media profiles, sketchy people-search listings, or other personal information you never realized was out there.
Sometimes it's just annoying, but other times it can be downright dangerous. The good news is that it's possible to remove some personal information from Google Search.
However, Google can only remove certain kinds of results, and getting something removed from Search doesn't necessarily delete it from the internet itself.
UMVA can exclusively reveal that understanding what Google will and won't remove is crucial to protecting your online privacy.
Google has policies specifically designed to protect users from privacy and safety risks.
If your search results include personal contact information like home addresses, personal phone numbers, and email addresses, there's a decent chance you can get them removed from Google Search.
Financial and identity information such as social security numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, images of signatures, login credentials, or photos of government-issued IDs are also eligible for removal if they're publicly visible.
Explicitly or non-consensual content, doxxing or harassment content, and other sensitive information may also be removed.
On the other hand, Google usually won't remove news articles and media coverage, public records, profiles and content you posted yourself, criticism, reviews, and opinions.
To start removing personal information from Google Search, begin by finding what Google already knows about you.
The easiest way to start is by Googling yourself from the point of view of a stranger.
Open an incognito or private browsing window first—this reduces any personalized results tied to your own account or search history—then start searching.
Begin with the basics such as your full name in quotes, your name plus city or state, your phone number, your home address, and your current or old email addresses.
This will give you a good baseline of what's out there about you.
As you search, make note of what kinds of information appear and where they're coming from.
Not all search results are equally important, and not all of them can be removed through Google.
Organize your findings into categories like personal contact info, sensitive financial or identification information, social media and personal profiles, news articles and public records, and harassing or explicit content.
Once you've tracked down what data is out there, it's time to see if Google will remove it from Search results.
Google offers tools that can help you find, remove, and create alerts about undesirable personal data from Search.
The "Results about you" tool can help you find and remove search results containing personal information.
For more serious cases, Google has a broader personal content removal request system.
This is the tool you'll use if search results expose information like ID numbers, bank account or credit card info, login credentials, medical records, and other highly sensitive personal information.
Getting your personal information removed from Google is only half the battle.
The harder part is keeping it from showing back up again a few months later.
Entities like data broker websites constantly collect, update, and resell personal information from public records, marketing databases, social media profiles, and other online sources.
To mitigate this, follow privacy best-practices like being careful what you post publicly on your profiles and removing any personal data from publicly-facing sources.
Consider subscribing to a data removal service to automate much of the opt-out process on data broker sites.
These services can save you a huge amount of time and effort.
Finally, set up Google monitoring alerts via Google Alerts or through Google's "Results about you" tool.
These will act as an early warning system for new people-search listings on data broker sites, newly indexed addresses or phone numbers associated with you, and any potential public profiles about you that pop up.
