It can be quite frightening to find personal information about yourself in a Google search, like a home address or phone number, but you can take proactive steps to protect your privacy.
A couple of years ago, Google expanded the ways you can submit removal requests for search results containing personal info. While you previously had to meet a very high threshold for results containing sensitive data to be wiped, the process is now available for more people.
In addition to the removal of personal information, Google considers removal requests for images of minors, as well as deepfake pornography and other explicit content.
There's no guarantee that unwanted search results will disappear completely, however. As a result of your request, the web page could be removed from all searches on Google, only searches involving your name, or none of the above.
Although getting results scrubbed from Google Search won't remove web pages from the internet, it will divert a huge driver of traffic. Here's how to make your personal details vanish from search results.
