During the Google I/O 2022 conference in May, the search giant unveiled a new tool to make it easy for people to remove their personal info from Google search results. This includes their phone number, email address, or physical address.
In April, Google debuted a request form that tackled this same problem. But the new tool found in the Google App makes this process far easier by integrating it directly into a menu in the search results, rather than forcing you to go to another page to fill out a form.
The feature is currently rolling out in beta, so not everyone has access yet, but here’s a look at how it works.
How to remove your personal info from Google Search
Once you have access to the new tool, anytime you see personally-identifiable information about yourself in a search result you’ll be able to remove it in a few taps. Just tap on the three dots next to the Google Search result and then in the prompt you select whether it is a phone number, physical, or email address.
That’s all there is to it. Google will then evaluate the content on the page that is serving your personal information to determine that it is not “limiting the availability of other information that is broadly useful” and if appropriate, block the search result in question.
As with the existing request system, this does not remove that information from the website that is hosting the content, it merely eliminates it from Google’s search results. Eliminating the content entirely would involve contacting the website directly and Google has a support page to help you with that.
