Google just made it a lot easier to protect your privacy online

Jul 29, 2023

Back in the day, information about yourself or your family members wasn’t so readily available, but with the internet and social media, finding people and people they’re associated with has gotten a lot easier.

If you’re uncomfortable with your online presence being so easily found on the internet, Google’s got some good news for you. The company has announced the rolling out of new and improved privacy features that should make protecting your privacy online a lot easier.

This includes improvements made to their “Results about you” tool. Previously, users had to submit requests to get their information taken down, but now Google will be rolling out a new dashboard that will notify users if web results containing your private information shows up in search, and from there users can quickly make a request to have that information removed from search.

Google is also expanding their privacy tools to explicit images, where if users are discovering private photos that are being shared without their permission on other websites, they can request to have that website removed from search results.

Keep in mind that these only apply to Google. Other search engines may still surface your private information, but seeing as Google is the biggest search engine, it should limit your visibility. Also, another thing to remember is that Google only removes the information from search results. It will not have any bearing on the websites hosting your photos or information, but it should make finding it a bit harder.

Source: Google