Have you ever Googled yourself? You may be surprised at what you find.
Searching your name online is no longer a novelty or a lark. In fact, it can be a crucial part of managing your online reputation at a time when an ill-judged tweet or inappropriate photo can cost you your livelihood.
If you do come across personal — or even sensitive — content about yourself in a web search, don’t panic. Google can wipe any unwanted personal info that others have uploaded. This can include bank account details, your home address, phone number, and explicit photos.
Whereas you currently have to scour the web for these undesirable results yourself, and then submit a takedown request form, Google will soon take a more proactive approach to the cleanup process.
To make things less cumbersome, the company will release a new dashboard for the Google app that alerts you when your contact info appears in Search. Then, you can quickly request the removal of those results from within the same tool.
The update is now available in the US and will come to more countries soon, Google announced on Thursday (August 3). It’s worth bearing in mind that removing info from Google Search doesn’t mean it will completely vanish from the internet or other search engines.
According to Google, the change is part of a broader shakeup of its privacy and online safety tools. Going beyond existing takedowns of non-consensual explicit imagery, one of the new features lets users remove explicit content that they uploaded themselves.
“For example, if you created and uploaded explicit content to a website, then deleted it, you can request its removal from Search if it’s being published elsewhere without approval,” Google wrote in a blog post. “This policy doesn’t apply to content you are currently commercializing,” it added in a nod to adult video subscription services such as OnlyFans.
Google is also going to blur explicit images in search results by default around the world. The company introduced the change earlier this year following pressure from US lawmakers to safeguard families and children from adult or graphic violent content.
In addition, the company is making it easier to access parental controls from within search. Instead of rifling through your settings, you can find info on the limits for children by typing a relevant query like “google parental controls” or “google family link”.
