Google on Wednesday announced that it will remove any personally identifiable information from it’s search results if requested by users.
This specifically includes the contact information of a person, whose public availability can lead to unnecessary acts or harm. Although, Google said it will thoroughly check the site where the concerned content is hosted and may deny if those data availability is necessary.
Hiding Search Results With PII
Google’s search engine is so extensive that, it may sometimes list anyone’s PII(personal information) that’s hosted on a public website without any protection.
As this may sometimes cause harm to the concerned person whose details got exposed, the company is now expanding it’s search removal requests to include the PII of any person.
As announced on Wednesday, Google will let users approach with a request to remove their’s or someone’s PII that’s available in the search results. To date, Google serves to remove doxing information of people, which includes more personal details like someone’s bank account or credit card numbers shared publicly with malicious intent.
Now, including this to personal details like someone’s phone number, email, or physical address, as they don’t feel safe with their personal information not being available to someone unknown. Google said;
“People have given us feedback that they would like the ability to remove this type of information from Search in some cases.”
Late last year, the company rolled out a similar policy to let people under the age of 18, their parents or their guardians request the removal of their images from Google search results.
Although, Google said it will clearly check before pulling that URL down from it’s search. It added exceptions like job portals, government or official sites may host such personal information of someone for reasonable purposes, so complying to them, these details will remain in public search results.
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