All About Google’s “Results About You” Feature
Get an email alert anytime anyone uses Google to search for you online
Google has a feature called Results About You that alerts you when your personal information gets posted online. This feature uses Google Search to scan the web for your name, address, phone number, email address, and other personal information. It sends you an email alert when it finds your information on a website.
You can pair the Results About You feature with the Remove Your Result tool to make it difficult for people to find your personal information online. The Remove Your Result tool allows you to request that Google remove info about you and links to specific websites containing info about you from its search results.
To use the Results About You feature, you must have a Google Account. Once you have a Google Account, you can sign in to the Results About You website. The “Results About You” dashboard will send notifications when new results about you appear.
In a time when the personal and financial data of billions of people is floating around online, ripe for exploitation by data brokers, privacy has become a major concern. Google acknowledged this issue when it launched the Results About You tool.
It’s important to note that Google cannot remove all personal information from the web. However, the Results About You feature and the Remove Your Result tool can help you to make your personal information more difficult to find online.
Here are some tips for using the Results About You feature and the Remove Your Result tool:
- Review your Results About You alerts regularly and request that Google remove any links to websites you don’t want to appear in search results.
- Be sure to update your Results About You profile with any changes to your personal information.
- Be careful about sharing your personal information online. Only share your information with websites and organizations that you trust.
When you visit Google’s Results About You website, you’ll find it’s easy to use You can get a good idea of what to expect when you visit the Results About You website from the screenshots below. These screenshots were taken after logging in to my Google account.
Fill in the forms and get notified when someone searches Google for you
Be sure that you fill in all information correctly on the Google Results About You website. When you’ve completed filling out the forms, you’ll be notified by email anytime someone searches for you online using Google.
Important note: Google’s “Results About You” tool is currently available in English only and only in the United States. Google states they plan to roll out Results About You to other countries in the future.
now call me suspicious, or overly concerned, but since you have to GIVE them ALL your personal details before they search for them……. doesn’t that give yet another site your info……. do I trust google? Can you trust any site?
True, but we never said you had to. Personally, I’d trust Google more with my personal info that the hundreds of data brokers out there that have it. We never said you must use this Google service, we’re just telling you it’s available.
I’ve used this Google service for quite a while now. They email me when they find my information on any website and ask if I want it removed. They removed my information every time I said yes. It’s scary how many websites have our personal information!