Who has not already typed their name on Google and had the unpleasant experience of discovering significantly more results than they imagined? This practice, consisting of searching for information about it referenced by search engines, is unfortunately not the most effective and may lack responsiveness.
That’s why Google launched a feature last year dedicated to monitoring results about its users, called “Results About You.” In particular, it makes it possible to check that postal addresses, telephone numbers and private email addresses do not appear in its results. Now, the search engine also allows you to activate an automatic alert if such personal data is detected. Previously, it was necessary to manually create Google alerts to be informed, for example. Google therefore wishes to protect its users from doxxing ; a practice of divulging an individual’s information with the intent of harming that individual.
A single interface to make and track delisting requests
The other advantage of the “Results about you” function is that it allows you to request the delisting of content including this personal data, and to follow its progress, directly from this same interface. Be careful however, as search engines, Google, Yahoo or even Bing can simply erase these pages from their results, but not delete the content at source.
Google is launching this function in the United States first and only in English. It is hoped that it will soon appear in other regions, to facilitate the tracking of personal data online. Going further, other tools help to monitor its web presence. This is particularly the case of PimEyes, which allows you to perform reverse searches using AI, to find photos that seem to correspond to the person sought, of whom it is necessary to provide a snapshot. We could also cite the Have I Been Pwned site, which informs you if your email address or phone number has been leaked.
More generally, Google has simplified the delisting process. This is particularly the case for explicit content, if the data subject no longer wishes it to be accessible. “For example, if you created and uploaded explicit content to a website and then deleted it, you can request that it be removed from the search engine if it is published elsewhere without permission”explains Google, which specifies that the content in question should no longer be the subject of commercial exploitation.