Google introduces new privacy tools

Google has added some important features to give users more control over their personal information, privacy and online security.

1. An easier way to find and remove results about you

Last year, Google launched the ‘Results about you’ tool to make it easy for you to request the removal of search results that contain your personal phone number, home address or email, right from the Google app or however you access Search.

Now, the tool has been significantly updated and improved, helping you keep track of your personal contact information in Search and alerting you when Google finds it, so you can get it removed.

In the coming days, a new dashboard will be rolled out that will let you know if web results with your contact information are showing up on Google Search. Users can quickly request the removal of those results from Google – right in the tool.

Google will also notify users when new results from the web containing their contact info pop up in Search.

The Results about you tool can be accessed in the Google app by clicking on your Google account photo and selecting ‘Results about you’, or by visiting goo.gle/resultsaboutyou. This tool is available in the U.S. in English to start, with new languages and locations to be added soon.

2. More control for your family

Earlier in 2023 Google announced a new safeguard that helps protect families from inadvertently encountering explicit imagery on Search. With the most recent update, explicit imagery – such as adult or graphic violent content – will now be blurred by default when it appears in Search results.

The new SafeSearch blurring setting is rolling out for all users globally this month. The setting can be adjusted and turned off at any time, unless a guardian or school network administrator has locked it.

Google is also making it easier to find parental controls directly in Search. Just type in a relevant query like ‘google parental controls’ or ‘google family link’ and you will see a box with information on how to manage your parental controls.

3. Updated policies on personal explicit images

Google is building on existing protections, which enables users to remove non-consensual explicit imagery from Search to enable people to remove any of their personal, explicit images that they no longer wish to be visible in Search.

For example, if someone created and uploaded explicit content to a website, and then deleted it, you can request its removal from Search if it is being published elsewhere without approval. This policy does not apply to content you are currently commercializing.

More broadly, whether it is for websites containing personal information, explicit imagery, or any other removal requests, Google has updated and simplified the forms users use to submit requests. Removing content from Google Search does not remove it from the web or other search engines, but the Google’s improvement will give users more control over private information appearing in Google Search.