Google is promoting a tool to remove personally identifiable information or dox content from search results. It’s a notable move for a firm that has long resisted individual moderation of search content except for widely malicious or copyright-infringing content. But whether it works for you or not depends on many factors.
As with almost all Google features and products, you may not have immediate access to Google’s new removal process. However, if you do, you can click the three dots next to a web search result (when you sign in) or in the Google mobile app to open “About this result”. Among the options you can click at the bottom of the popup is “Delete Result”. Note, however, that this button has much more intent than an immediate action – Google suggests a “several days”response time.
A Google blog post about the tool, updated at the end of September, notes that “starting early next year”you can request regular alerts about when your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) appears in new search results, allowing for faster reporting and potentially delete.
I did a trial run of the process by searching my name and a relatively recent address on Google and then reporting it. The result I reported came from a private company that, while pretending to publish only public or FOIA entries, places those entries next to links that direct you to the true owner of the site, initiating “background check or other tracking service for a fee.
How a delete request works
I requested that the site be removed from Google results by noting that “it shows my personal contact information”and then checking exactly what information the site was showing. Google told me they were looking into my request and then emailed me a link where I can track this and other requests. You may also request the deletion of results for yourself or on behalf of others by completing the detailed deletion request form.
Google identifies certain “selected personal information or doxxing content “that you may request to be removed from Google: sensitive government identification numbers, bank accounts, credit cards, signatures, identification documents, medical and other sensitive records, contact information (address, telephone). and email address) and login credentials.
If Google approves your result for removal, it will do one of two things. It can remove the result from its results entirely, which it claims it does for ID, bank, credit card, and similar information. For other identifying information, Google may remove a result when used in a search that contains your name “or other similar identifier”. This gives Google the ability to make your data less searchable while still allowing content that is “of public interest or contains material about other people.”
While it is now much easier to request deletion of personally identifiable information, Google’s action or omission is, of course, dependent both on the person viewing the information and how it conflicts with Google’s deletion of personally identifiable information policy.