What Google Can and Cannot Remove
Before spending time on this, understand the scope. When you remove your information from Google Search, you're removing it from search results — not from the underlying website. If your address is listed on Spokeo, removing it from Google won't remove it from Spokeo's own website. Someone who goes directly to Spokeo.com will still find it.
What Google removal does accomplish: it prevents your information from being surfaced through a Google search. For most people, that's how data broker profiles get found — a quick Google search for your name. Removing the search result raises the floor on how easy you are to find, even if the data is still out there on the source site.
Google will remove search results that contain certain types of personal information, including home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and financial information, when those results exist on third-party sites. They're more likely to approve removal requests for data broker-style sites than for news articles or other editorial content.
The Results About You Tool
Google's primary tool for this is called "Results About You." It's designed to help people find and request removal of search results that show their personal contact information.
Step 1: Access the tool
Go to myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy and sign into your Google account. Scroll down to find "Results about you in Search" or navigate directly to the Results About You section. Alternatively, search your name in Google and look for the "Results about you" prompt that Google sometimes shows beneath the search bar.
Step 2: Enter your information
The tool asks you to enter the personal information you want to monitor: your name, address, phone number, and email address. This is the information Google will search for across its index. The tool will then show you search results that contain that information.
Step 3: Review results and request removal
The tool surfaces search results that contain your information. For each result you want removed, click to review it and submit a removal request. Google will evaluate the request against its removal policies. Results on data broker-style sites that aggregate personal contact information are generally eligible for removal.
You'll receive an email when Google has reviewed each request. The review process typically takes a few days to a couple of weeks. Approved requests are removed from Google's index; denied requests show the reason.
Step 4: Set up monitoring
The Results About You tool also offers ongoing monitoring. Once you've entered your information, Google will notify you when new results matching that information appear in Search. This functions similarly to Google Alerts but is specifically focused on personal contact information appearing in search results rather than general mentions of your name.
Using the Direct Removal Request Form
For results that don't surface through the Results About You tool, Google also has a direct removal request form at support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/9685456. This form walks through different categories of content: personal information, images, legal issues, and more. For data broker listings, the relevant category is "Information that should not be in search results" and specifically the personal information subcategory.
Realistic Expectations
Google removal is not a complete solution and it's not fast. A few things to keep in mind:
- Google re-crawls the web continuously. If a data broker site still hosts your information, new search results pointing to it may appear after you've had previous results removed. You may need to re-submit removal requests periodically.
- Google's removal policies have limits. Results from news organizations, government websites, and sites with editorial value are generally not eligible for removal on personal information grounds alone.
- Removing a result from Google doesn't remove it from Bing, DuckDuckGo, or other search engines. Those have their own removal processes.
- The best long-term approach is to remove the information from the source — the data broker's own website — so that no search engine can index it. Google removal is a complementary step, not a substitute for broker opt-outs.
Next Steps
Google removal is one layer of a privacy strategy. To remove your information from the source sites, see the removal services comparison for options that handle broker opt-outs directly. For monitoring new mentions, the Google Alerts guide covers ongoing monitoring at no cost.