If you’ve ever Googled yourself and found sensitive personal information—like your phone number, home address, or even leaked passwords—you’re not alone. Fortunately, Google provides ways to remove personal data from search results. In this guide, we’ll show you how to request removal and take additional steps to protect your privacy.
Step 1: Identify What You Want to Remove
Google doesn’t own the websites displaying your information—it just indexes them. This means you’ll need to:
✅ Request Google to remove search results that display personal or sensitive information.
✅ Contact the website owner to delete the data at the source.
Step 2: Request Google to Remove Personal Information
Google allows you to request removal of certain types of personal data, including:
- Your home address, phone number, or email
- Bank account or credit card details
- Social Security numbers and other government-issued IDs
- Leaked login credentials
- Explicit or personal images shared without consent
📌 How to Submit a Removal Request:
1️⃣ Go to Google’s Removal Request page:
- Remove personal info from Google
2️⃣ Click “Start removal request.”
3️⃣ Select the type of personal information you want to remove.
4️⃣ Provide links to the search results and explain why the content should be removed.
5️⃣ Submit the request and wait for Google’s response.
💡 Google will review your request and either approve it or ask for more information. If approved, the result will no longer appear in searches, but it may still exist on the original website.
Step 3: Contact the Website Owner to Remove the Data
If your information appears on a website, the best way to fully remove it is by contacting the site owner directly.
📌 How to Find the Website Owner:
- Look for contact info on the website’s “Contact Us” or “About” page.
- Use WHOIS Lookup (whois.domaintools.com) to find the domain owner’s contact email.
- Reach out politely and ask them to remove your personal data.
🚨 If the website refuses to remove your information, you can still block it from appearing in Google Search (Step 2), but the data will remain online.
Step 4: Remove Your Info from Data Broker Sites
Many websites that expose personal details are data brokers—companies that collect and sell public records. Some common ones include:
- Spokeo (spokeo.com)
- Whitepages (whitepages.com)
- MyLife (mylife.com)
- PeopleFinder (peoplefinder.com)
📌 How to Opt Out:
- Search for “Opt out [site name]” on Google.
- Follow the site’s opt-out instructions to remove your data.
- Use a privacy service like DeleteMe (joindeleteme.com) or OneRep to automatically remove your data from multiple brokers.
Step 5: Protect Your Privacy Going Forward
To prevent your personal information from appearing online in the future:
✔ Use a VPN to hide your IP address when browsing.
✔ Adjust your social media privacy settings to limit public visibility.
✔ Set up Google Alerts (google.com/alerts) to get notified when your name appears in search results.
✔ Regularly check data broker sites and remove your info when needed.
