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I work from Google Search. Hope this helps clarify... There's a lot of personal info we'll remove such as images of minors, involuntary fake pornography and ot

I work from Google Search. Hope this helps clarify... There's a lot of personal info we'll remove such as images of minors, involuntary fake pornography and other issues as outlined here: https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/3111061 https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/3111061 Our announcement this week was about an expansion of removing personally identifying information -- PII -- (such as email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, etc),. This is the page that explains in more detail and where people should begin the removal process: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/9673730 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/9673730 The removal process will lead you to a troubleshooter. That's designed to help people more quickly get things resolved. For example, if a web page no longer exists on the web, or the site owner removed info, there are faster options you can use rather than going down the formal removal request option. But let's say you want something removed that has PII from a page that's live on the web and where you for whatever reason don't want to contact the site owner. The troubleshooter from that page I mentioned will lead you here: https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/9685456#ts=2889054%2C2889099 https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/9685456#... Say No to contacting the site owner, select Personal Info from the next option, pick the type of info and you'll get to the form (such as here if it involves contact info): https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/9685456#ts=2889054%2C2889099%2C9166584%2C9171202%2C2889115 https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/9685456#... That's where you enter the info. Appreciate the feedback that we should look at how to improve this more -- that said, the troubleshooter itself isn't new, and people have used it to successfully remove information beyond our recent expansion. But we'll see how to make it better.

utucuro 4y ago
Hi, a bit of late feedback: at this point, I would expect to be able to prevent at least the contact information pertaining to my own Google account from being searchable. My phone number is already known and verified to be mine by Google, it should be trivial for me (prominently displayed in account privacy settings) to delist this pre-verified information from search.
WaitWaitWha 4y ago
Very much appreciate the quick response and explanation! I found that a usability expert can come handy.
ugh123 4y ago
Thanks for the help! What can Google do about property search records on the internet? I understand this is technically "public" information, but having my full address searchable on the internet via just my name is kind of scary. Can those sites be removed entirely from the index? (i.e. realtyhop, blockshopper, clustrmaps, etc)
- dannysullivan 4y ago
  Our new policy allows you the ability to remove these types of listings for your name, if they are not official government sites.
vlovich123 4y ago
But you do get that that’s not particularly user friendly right? Like why not offer tools to make it easy to submit “here’s my phone number - delist it” or “here’s my name and all addresses I’ve lived - delist”and then you use Google’s awesome search and AI capabilities to figure that out. Then facilitate disputes between site owners and individuals. But forcing me to scan the internet looking for things that other malicious crawlers are finding. That’s not user friendly I think (in addition that finding this needs someone on the team to explain it on HN, one of the most technical sites on the world). It’s like the Douglas Adam’s joke from Hitchhikers (going from memory so I’m sure I’m butchering it): “but we published the plans to destroy the Earth in the center of the next galaxy in the 100th underground floor of the administrative building in the filing cabinet in the locked room guarded by man eating lions.”
- slvrspoon 4y ago
  Because that's not Google's business. At least this is a step in the right direction. That IS the business of privacy removal services like DeleteMe which i am a cofounder of. Like in many things in life the advice "follow the $" can be helpful here ;)
  - djbusby 4y ago
    What's follow the money mean here? Like Google won't do work cause there is too much cost? This usage of the phrase don't match my understanding (which is the Lester Fremon (The Wire) usage) - in that it leads to corruption.
    - ShamelessC 4y ago
      i think to parent comment it means "use my service, if google makes one i cant compete"
    - rkagerer 4y ago
      I think the notion they're trying to convey is Google doesn't have much motivation to make this feature good / humane as it has little immediate impact to their bottom line, compared to a company whose revenue derives directly from how well said feature performs.
diogenescynic 4y ago
It's almost like Google doesn't want anyone to use this 'feature'... Great company.
r_hoods_ghost 4y ago
Ah good 'ole customer diversion, intentionally making it as difficult as possible for the customer to do what they want to do by making them jump through hoops on the pretence that you know better. Saves google money as it takes humans out the loop. Lovely dark pattern.
jfoster 4y ago
For the form field "List the query terms", shouldn't it be a multi-line field? The instruction is: "Please enter one query term per line (max 10000 lines)"
froh 4y ago
Cool thanks for the details! How do you protect someone filing fake requests to hide another person or personal business from being findable, to damage them? How do you prevent abuse?
- dannysullivan 4y ago
  The policy doesn't allow for removal of business info but rather personal info. And there is a review process. If someone tried to, I suppose, remove a page for someone's name who ran their own business and submitted the business URL, the review process would ideally catch that in multiple ways, request more information and so on. That's why we do use a review process.
_the_inflator 4y ago
Thank you for your clarification. A small portal under an URL, say removal.google.com or google.com/removal featuring this content and links there - that would be a great start.

utucuro 4y ago

Hi, a bit of late feedback: at this point, I would expect to be able to prevent at least the contact information pertaining to my own Google account from being searchable. My phone number is already known and verified to be mine by Google, it should be trivial for me (prominently displayed in account privacy settings) to delist this pre-verified information from search.

WaitWaitWha 4y ago

Very much appreciate the quick response and explanation! I found that a usability expert can come handy.

ugh123 4y ago

Thanks for the help! What can Google do about property search records on the internet? I understand this is technically "public" information, but having my full address searchable on the internet via just my name is kind of scary. Can those sites be removed entirely from the index? (i.e. realtyhop, blockshopper, clustrmaps, etc)

dannysullivan 4y ago
Our new policy allows you the ability to remove these types of listings for your name, if they are not official government sites.

vlovich123 4y ago

But you do get that that’s not particularly user friendly right? Like why not offer tools to make it easy to submit “here’s my phone number - delist it” or “here’s my name and all addresses I’ve lived - delist”and then you use Google’s awesome search and AI capabilities to figure that out. Then facilitate disputes between site owners and individuals. But forcing me to scan the internet looking for things that other malicious crawlers are finding. That’s not user friendly I think (in addition that finding this needs someone on the team to explain it on HN, one of the most technical sites on the world). It’s like the Douglas Adam’s joke from Hitchhikers (going from memory so I’m sure I’m butchering it): “but we published the plans to destroy the Earth in the center of the next galaxy in the 100th underground floor of the administrative building in the filing cabinet in the locked room guarded by man eating lions.”

slvrspoon 4y ago
Because that's not Google's business. At least this is a step in the right direction. That IS the business of privacy removal services like DeleteMe which i am a cofounder of. Like in many things in life the advice "follow the $" can be helpful here ;)
- djbusby 4y ago
  What's follow the money mean here? Like Google won't do work cause there is too much cost? This usage of the phrase don't match my understanding (which is the Lester Fremon (The Wire) usage) - in that it leads to corruption.
  - ShamelessC 4y ago
    i think to parent comment it means "use my service, if google makes one i cant compete"
  - rkagerer 4y ago
    I think the notion they're trying to convey is Google doesn't have much motivation to make this feature good / humane as it has little immediate impact to their bottom line, compared to a company whose revenue derives directly from how well said feature performs.

diogenescynic 4y ago

It's almost like Google doesn't want anyone to use this 'feature'... Great company.

r_hoods_ghost 4y ago

Ah good 'ole customer diversion, intentionally making it as difficult as possible for the customer to do what they want to do by making them jump through hoops on the pretence that you know better. Saves google money as it takes humans out the loop. Lovely dark pattern.

jfoster 4y ago

For the form field "List the query terms", shouldn't it be a multi-line field? The instruction is: "Please enter one query term per line (max 10000 lines)"

froh 4y ago

Cool thanks for the details! How do you protect someone filing fake requests to hide another person or personal business from being findable, to damage them? How do you prevent abuse?

dannysullivan 4y ago
The policy doesn't allow for removal of business info but rather personal info. And there is a review process. If someone tried to, I suppose, remove a page for someone's name who ran their own business and submitted the business URL, the review process would ideally catch that in multiple ways, request more information and so on. That's why we do use a review process.

_the_inflator 4y ago

Thank you for your clarification. A small portal under an URL, say removal.google.com or google.com/removal featuring this content and links there - that would be a great start.