Use Google To Remove Yourself From Google

De-Google with the help of Google

A data suppression tool has been in the works at Google for several years. Every 6 months or so they release an update and people email our team saying did you see this update? Aren’t you worried Google will kill Kanary?

Short answer. No.

We are thrilled Google is helping people stay safe using the massive power they have over the internet and your data. If Google is proactive about blocking results, we can focus on the harder stuff instead of playing whack-a-mole with one of the most powerful tech company in the world. The best part about these tools is that they are free. Even if you are not a Google user, you can still use their removal request form.

So, we wanted to summarize four tools Google provides so that you can quickly and proactively keep sensitive information off page 1 and beyond.

Google Alerts

This feature is literally 20+ years old (launched in 2003!), but still worth mentioning because knowing about an exposure can give you time to prepare and react to an escalating threat.

1. Log into your Google account (required)

2. Go to the Alerts page: https://www.google.com/alerts

3. Add keywords including your full name, your address, your email, and phone number.

4. We haven’t tested it, but it appears you can set up to 1,000 keywords per account to monitor. So go crazy on setting up variations of data you do not want exposed on google search.

Pro Tip: Click the settings icon to set up Deliverability preferences. You can tell Google that at most you want 1 email per day, aggregating all of the mentions of your keywords. This will help manage noise if you set up many alerts.

Google About Me

This is like Google alerts, but specifically for alerting you about your personal data, and whether or not Google was able to remove it from their cached search results.

1. Log into your Google account (required)

2. Go to the Results About You page: https://myactivity.google.com/u/0/results-about-you

3. Click on Settings. Update to include the contact information you want removed from search results.

4. Google will proactively remove results from their cached results if they find matching data about you.

5. You can see which sites they’ve removed from the cache because of matching data under Results Found and Removal Requests.

Pro Tip: They won’t remove data if it doesn’t match your Google profile. So if you try to remove a parent’s name or address, be ready to see a denied request.

Google Remove Outdated Result

If the About Me process misses a result about you, or a source site removes a post and Google is slow to clear its cache, you can request that the link get updated faster.

1. Log into your Google account (required)

2. Go to the Remove Outdated Content page: https://search.google.com/search-console/remove-outdated-content

3. Submit the link to the page that was updated or removed, and that is still showing on search results.

4. Submit the words that changed / no longer are present on the page

Pro Tip: They will help you remove both text like home address, and images if you upload a photo, from websites. For image removal, they may take more time, but still can help to clear unwanted photos that are removed by source sites.

Google Escalation

The automated removal is great, but a lot of requests get denied for ambiguous reasons. To escalate a removal request to google, you need to add more details.

1. Go to the Content Removal page: https://support.google.com/websearch/contact/content_removal_form?sjid=5711565509225387094-NC

2. Follow the instructions for content removal. They will request context, screenshots, and links. Be sure to read up on copyright law in case your claim does or does not fall under DMCA.

Pro Tip: They allow you to submit a request on behalf of others here, however, you will need to clarify your relationship and justify your role in requesting the removal of this information.

We recommend all of our members walk through these de-Google steps when they have a high priority result they need removed from Google. If you are looking for additional resources on how to navigate Google’s tools, or have questions on what we’ve shared, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team: [email protected]