How to Remove Your Personal Information From Google

Google’s “Results About You” Tool

In 2022, Google quietly launched a tool that most people still do not know exists. Called “Results about you,” it lets you find Google Search results that contain your personal contact information and request their removal directly from search results.

This was a significant shift. For years, Google’s position was that it indexed the open web and did not take responsibility for the content it surfaced. The “Results about you” tool represents Google acknowledging that surfacing someone’s personal information in search results creates real harm — and giving individuals a mechanism to address it.

The tool works through your Google account. Navigate to myactivity.google.com/results-about-you, or open the Google app on your phone and tap your profile icon, then select “Results about you.” Google will search for results containing your name combined with personal details you provide — phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses. It then presents matching results and lets you request removal for each one.

When Google approves a removal, it de-indexes the specific URL from search results. That means the page will no longer appear when someone Googles your name. The page itself still exists on the source website — Google is not deleting the content, only removing its pointer to it. This is an important distinction we will return to.

What Qualifies for Removal

Google does not remove everything. Their published removal policy defines specific categories of personal information that qualify:

• Contact information: Phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses — particularly when combined with your name in a way that could facilitate unwanted contact or targeting.
• Government-issued ID numbers: Social Security Numbers, tax identification numbers, and other national ID numbers.
• Financial information: Bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and financial records that could enable fraud.
• Medical records: Personal health information that appears in search results without your consent.
• Login credentials: Usernames and passwords exposed through data breaches or other sources.
• Doxxing content: Pages that expose your contact information alongside explicit or implicit threats, or content designed to facilitate harassment.
• Non-consensual intimate images: Explicit images shared without consent, including deepfakes.
• Content involving minors: Personal information about individuals under 18.

The common thread is information that creates a specific, identifiable risk — identity theft, financial fraud, physical harm, or targeted harassment. Google is most likely to approve removal when the exposed information has no legitimate public interest and its presence in search results creates clear potential for harm.

What Does NOT Qualify

Understanding what Google will not remove is just as important as knowing what they will. These categories are generally rejected:

• General mentions of your name. A blog post that mentions you by name, a conference speaker list, or a company directory page. These are considered part of the public web and do not expose sensitive personal information.
• News articles and journalistic content. Even if unflattering or inaccurate, news coverage is protected. Google does not de-index legitimate journalism, including court reporting, business news, or investigative pieces. There are narrow exceptions for news articles that expose specific PII like phone numbers, but the article itself stays indexed.
• Accurate business listings. If you run a business and your business address or phone number appears in a directory, Google considers this public business information, not personal PII.
• Social media profiles you created. Your Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or X profile was created by you, with information you chose to publish. Google will not de-index these — you need to edit or delete them yourself.
• Public records with legitimate public interest. Court filings, property records, and government disclosures that serve a public-interest function. A property deed with your name and address is a public record; Google is unlikely to de-index it unless it is being weaponized for harassment.
• Professional information. Your job title, employer, and professional credentials that appear on business or industry sites. This is considered publicly relevant professional information.

Step-by-Step: Submitting a Removal Request

Here is the exact process for requesting removal of a search result through Google:

1. Find the result in Google Search. Search for your name combined with your city, phone number, or other identifying details. Use an incognito window to avoid personalized results. Identify the specific result you want removed.
2. Copy the exact URL. Click on the search result and copy the full URL from your browser’s address bar. You need the URL of the actual page, not the Google search results page.
3. Open the removal tool. Go to Google’s personal information removal request form. Alternatively, use the “Results about you” dashboard at myactivity.google.com/results-about-you, which lets you manage multiple requests in one place.
4. Select the type of information. Google will ask what kind of personal information appears in the result. Choose the most specific category: contact information, government ID, financial data, etc. Be accurate — selecting the wrong category can result in rejection.
5. Paste the URL and provide details. Enter the URL of the page. Google may ask you to specify exactly what personal information appears (e.g., “my phone number 312-555-0100 and home address”). Provide as much detail as needed for the reviewer to locate the PII on the page.
6. Confirm your identity. Google may ask you to verify that the information belongs to you. This typically involves confirming that the name and details in the result match your Google account information.
7. Submit and wait. Google will review the request and notify you of the outcome via email. You can track the status in the “Results about you” dashboard.

Expected Timeline and Success Rate

Google typically reviews removal requests within a few business days, though complex cases can take longer. Here is what to expect:

• Contact information removal (phone, address): Highest approval rate. If a data broker listing clearly displays your phone number or home address alongside your name, Google will usually approve the removal within 2–5 days.
• Financial or government ID information: Near-automatic approval. Bank account numbers, SSNs, and similar data are almost always de-indexed promptly.
• Doxxing and harassment content: Approved when Google can verify the intent. May take longer due to manual review. Providing context (e.g., screenshots of threats, police report numbers) can speed up the process.
• General personal information on broker sites: Mixed results. A Spokeo listing showing your name, age, and city — but not your phone number or address — may be rejected. The same listing with your phone number visible is more likely to be approved.

If your request is rejected, Google provides a reason and you can resubmit with additional context. Common rejection reasons include: the information does not fall within eligible categories, the content has public interest value, or Google could not verify that the information belongs to you. Review the rejection reason carefully before resubmitting — addressing the specific objection significantly improves your chances on the second attempt.

What happens after approval

When Google approves a removal, the specific URL is de-indexed from search results. This typically takes effect within 24–48 hours. The page will no longer appear when someone searches for your name. However:

• The page still exists at its original URL. Anyone who has the direct link can still access it.
• Other search engines (Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo) are not affected. You would need to submit separate removal requests to each.
• If the source page is updated or moved to a new URL, the new version may appear in Google results again. The removal applies to the specific URL you submitted, not to the domain.

The Fundamental Limitation

Here is the part that most guides about Google removal gloss over: removing a result from Google does not remove your data. It removes Google’s pointer to your data.

Think of Google as a card catalog in a library. Removing a card from the catalog does not remove the book from the shelf. The book — your personal information on the data broker’s website — is still there. Anyone who walks to the right shelf (visits the broker site directly) can still find it.

This matters because:

• Data brokers sell access directly. Employers, landlords, skip tracers, and private investigators use data broker sites directly — they do not need Google to find your profile. De-indexing from Google does not affect these users.
• Other search engines still index the page. Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo may still show the result. Google handles roughly 90% of search traffic, so de-indexing from Google reduces your exposure significantly — but it does not eliminate it.
• New pages can appear. Data brokers continuously update their listings. A removed URL may be replaced by a new page at a different URL, which Google will index again. You would need to submit a new removal request for each new URL.
• Bulk data access is unaffected. Data brokers sell your information through APIs and bulk data feeds to other businesses. These channels do not go through Google at all.

Google removal is a legitimate and useful tool. But by itself, it is a band-aid — it treats the symptom (visibility in search results) without addressing the cause (your data existing on broker sites in the first place).

Why Source Removal Is the Better Approach

If you want your personal information genuinely removed — not just hidden from one search engine — you need to go to the source. That means opting out from the data brokers themselves.

When you submit an opt-out request to a data broker like Spokeo, Whitepages, or BeenVerified, the broker removes (or suppresses) your listing from their site. Once the listing no longer exists on the source page, Google’s crawler will naturally de-index the dead page on its next crawl cycle — usually within days to a couple of weeks. You get the Google removal for free, as a side effect of the source removal.

Source removal is better in every dimension:

• Removes data from the actual source, not just from one search engine’s index.
• Covers all search engines at once. When the page is gone, no search engine can index it.
• Stops direct-access exposure. People who go to the broker site directly will no longer find your listing.
• Reduces data broker-to-broker sharing. Some brokers scrape other brokers. Removing yourself from Site A can reduce your presence on Site B if B was sourcing from A.
• Legal backing. Privacy laws like the CCPA give you a legal right to request deletion from data brokers. No equivalent legal right exists for Google de-indexing of third-party content (outside of EU GDPR “right to be forgotten” rules).

When to use both

The optimal strategy is to combine both approaches:

1. Submit broker opt-outs first. Go directly to each data broker that has your listing and request removal. This eliminates the data at the source.
2. Use Google removal for immediate relief. While waiting for broker opt-outs to process (which can take days to weeks), submit Google removal requests for the most sensitive results. This gives you immediate reduction in search visibility while the source-level removal works its way through.
3. Use Google removal for stubborn pages. Some broker pages linger in Google’s index for weeks after the source page is removed. Google’s removal tool can accelerate this for specific URLs.

Frequently Asked Questions