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Ways to Remove Personal Information from Google Search
There are at least two ways to remove your data from Google. The first one is to contact that site’s owner to remove your data and the other one is to request Google to do so and it will remove your data from search results that can cause any type of harm to you. Read on to know both the ways in detail.
Contact Site’s Webmaster
Since Google can’t control the content on any site, in order to remove it, the first thing you can do is to contact the person who owns that particular website. Even if Google deletes the site from its search results, the page will still exist on the internet and can be found through social media or other search engines. So it’s important to get it removed from the site owner. You can contact a site owner in many ways, such as:
Contact us tab: You can always find a “Contact Us” link or an email address on the site’s homepage.
Using Whois: You can also search for the site owner using Google “who is” search. Just go to google.com and search for whois “website name” and you can find the email address to contact the site owner.Contact hosting company: The Whois search results also include information about the hosting of the website. So if you can’t find an email there, you can try contacting the hosting company.
Request Google to Remove Personal Information
If you don’t want to involve the site owner, Google may also remove your personal information from search results that have the potential to harm you in terms of identity theft, financial fraud, or your contact is shared in a malicious way.
Requirements to remove personal info from Google
Google may require the following type of information when you submit a removal request:
Government ID numbersBank account or credit card numbersImages of handwritten signatures and other ID documentsPersonal or official recordsPersonal contact info (addresses, phone numbers, and email)Confidential login details.
Steps to remove personal information from Google
You or anyone on your behalf can submit a request to remove content from Google search results by following these steps:
Go to this link to start the removal request.
Select what you want to do with this information- remove or prevent it from showing in the search.
Now, select where did you see the information- in search results and on the website or only in search results.
If you have contacted the website owner regarding the same, select the appropriate option.
Select which information you want to remove from various given options like personal info or sexually explicit content, etc.
When you select personal info, it will further ask you the type of personal info from options like address, phone number, email, bank account or credit card details, etc.
Select the items you want to remove and then Google will show a form to fill.
Check the respective box if the content is still live on the website and if your information is shared with malicious or harassing intent.
After that, enter the following details:
Full name of the affected personYour name, if you are representing someone else (also specify your relationship with that person)Country of residenceEmail address
After that, enter the URL of the webpage that shows the content in the given box.
Also provide the URL of the Google search result page that has the link to the webpage you are reporting.
Now, for each reported URL, you will need to upload one or more screenshots of the contact info (address, phone, or email) to process your request.
Next, enter the search query term or terms that shows the content in Google search results.
Write any additional comments that you would like to mention in the given box.
Lastly, check the self-declaration box after reading and then click on “Submit”.
Note: You should know that this form is only for removing such content that is still live on a site. If the content is not on the web and still appears in Google search results, you can use Google’s Remove Outdated Content tool. Also, read | 3 Ways To Auto Delete Google Account Recorded Data Everyday So these were the steps to follow if you want to remove your or any of your relative’s personal information from Google search results.
