Google has added new categories of personally identifiable information (PII) that people can request to be removed from its search results.
Google has added new categories of personally identifiable information (PII) that people can request to be removed from its search results. The company has offered the option to remove personal information from search results for many years, but requests were only accepted in cases of doxxing or financial fraud. However, the latest update to Google's policy will now enable people to request the removal of many other types of information.
Google is the world's largest online search service provider, with a mind-boggling 8.5 billion searches per day. Google is also the most-visited site in the world and has a larger share of the global search market than competitors like DuckDuckGo, Bing, and Yahoo combined. For all its market supremacy, however, Google has often faced the wrath of activists for its privacy practices and has often been under the scrutiny of global regulators for its business practices.
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According to a blog post, Google will now remove several new categories of information from its search results upon request, including personal contact information that could potentially create privacy issues and confidential log-in credentials that may pose a risk to identity theft. In Google-speak, personal contact information includes addresses, phone numbers, and email IDs, all of which Google says it will remove from its search results upon request. The company will also remove images of ID documents, such as drivers licenses, social security cards, passports, etc. To request the removal of personal information, users will need to head over to this page, fill in the application form and submit the request. The user does not have to be logged into their Google account to access the form or submit the request, and the contact email doesn't have to be a Gmail address.
Once the request is submitted, Google will send out an automated email confirmation and then review the request manually before deciding on a future course of action. Once a decision is made, the complainant will get an email notification of any action taken. In case the request is denied, Google says it will offer a brief explanation for the refusal. Prior to the latest change, Google already removed images of minors, U.S. social security numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, images of handwritten signatures, medical records, and more. In addition, the company also removes "non-consensual explicit or intimate personal images" and deepfakes or Photoshops of an explicit nature.
It is worth noting that removing information from Google search results doesn't actually remove the information from the internet. The information seen on Google search results typically resides on third-party websites, so people accessing that particular site or webpage directly will still be able to access the content. Also, Google's new policy is very different from the EU's right-to-be-forgotten regulation that requires search engines to delete any result that a user issues a take-down request for, even if it is only because they find the information to be inconvenient or unflattering. Google's new policy only deals with sensitive information, which means if it doesn't hamper someone's privacy, Google won't remove it from its search results.
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Source: Google (1, 2)
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