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Google has started rolling out a new feature to help users strengthen their online privacy (opens in new tab) by helping to remove personally identifiable information (PII) from search engine results pages.
After opening the Google app on Android devices, some users can tap their profile picture in the top right corner of the screen. There they will find a new menu item called “Results about you”. Tapping on that menu item takes them to a new page explaining how to ask Google to remove personally identifiable information (opens in new tab) from search results. That data includes phone numbers, postal addresses, email addresses, and more.
Users who find PII can now click the three-dot menu, which is located in the top-right corner of any search result. There they will find a new tool “Delete Result”. If they choose to remove it, they must add a reason such as “it shows my personal contact information”, “it contains illegal information” or “it is out of date”.
Slow rollout
Users can then follow Google as it progresses with the removal. Their requests are split into three categories: “All Requests”, “Pending” and “Approved”.
Google first announced the new tool in May 2022 at its I/O 2022 conference, where it said it would launch “in the coming months”, and has now started rolling out to some users in Europe and the United States. United States.
It also explained how it chooses which requests are granted and which are denied: “It is important to note that when we receive takedown requests, we will evaluate all content on the web page to ensure we are not limiting the availability of other information. that’s widely usable, for example in news articles. And of course, removing contact information from Google Search doesn’t remove it from the web, so you may want to contact the hosting site directly, if that’s convenient for you.”
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Through: 9to5Google (opens in new tab)