Google now allows requests to remove sensitive contact information directly from search.
You can now ask Google to remove your personal contact information, such as your physical address and email address, as well as your phone number, right from search. The tech giant is already accepting takedown requests to identify information, such as in cases of doxxing or if published data could be used for financial fraud. Today, Mountain View is expanding this procedure to support the details listed above, as well as IDs and images of identification documents that can be used for identity theft.
Google now allows requests to remove sensitive contact information
According to The Verge, Google still has a special process for doxing with the employee responsible for analyzing registered links to determine if they could cause harm. With this new directive, the company can grant removal if the content you wish to remove from search is not in the public interest or “not related to news”.
right in the search
As the blog notes, this is also different from the system set up by Google in the European Union to enforce the right to be forgotten. This law allows anyone in Europe to request the removal of content if it is inappropriate, inaccurate or unflattering. This extension of the procedure applies only to so-called confidential information. A spokesperson told The Verge that Google will de-index content in question, whether it’s behind a paywall or not, as long as the request is legitimate.
In a post from the American giant’s announcement, Michelle Chang, head of Google Global Policy for Search, reminds that removing content from search does not mean said content disappears from the web entirely. Michelle Chang recommends contacting the administrators of the sites it appears on for a complete removal.