Google now lets you remove your address and phone from Search results

Google Search can be a curse as much as it is a blessing. You can use it to find more information on various topics, such as Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter acquisition, or leaks about the upcoming iPhone 14, but at the same time, someone can use the same search service to find out where you live, your phone number, and other sensitive data about you. This is why Google allows users to request the removal of their personal data that appears in Search.

In a blog post, Google announced that, from now on, in addition to bank account and credit card numbers, users will be able to request the removal of other types of information, such as phone numbers, email addresses, or physical addresses, from its search results. But Google doesn’t stop there. To protect you from identity theft, the company also enables you to remove information, such as confidential log-in credentials, if they appear in Search.

However, don’t expect Google to erase all the data straight away. When you send a removal request, the company will first assess all the content on the web page that displays your credentials to ensure that it is not limiting the availability of other broadly useful information, such as news articles.

Google will also check if the content you want to delete isn’t part of the public record on government or official sites. If it is, it won’t make the removal.

It should be noted that removing content from Google’s search results doesn’t mean that it is gone from the Internet. As the company pointed out, if you want something completely gone, you should speak with the hosting site directly.