Google Search makes it easy to delete your private data

Google Search makes it easy to delete your private data. Many small and useful updates.

Google has announced several updates in Search to make it easier for users to control what may or may not appear in the results. Last year, the giant deployed a tool to simplify the removal of search results containing their phone number, personal address or email. Today, the company is updating this tool to make it even more efficient.

Google Search makes it easy to delete your private data

A new dashboard will arrive in the coming days to let you know when such personal information appears in Search. When you receive an alert, you can simply ask Google to delete these results.

A few months ago, the Mountain View firm launched a Google One feature that can search the dark web for your data in possible data thefts. This update works a bit on the same principle. The tool's proactive search for results including your personal data and assistance in deleting them ought to make privacy protection simpler.

You can access the tool from the Google app by tapping on your profile picture and selecting “your data in search” or by going to the dedicated page set up by the American giant. For now, the tool is only available in the US and English, but Google will soon extend its availability.

Google also updates a system that helps users remove explicit photos from themselves. The company has long offered the option of having explicit images removed from search results without consent. Today, all images are concerned.

Many small updates very useful

You may have sent sexual content from yourself to a site at some point, but now you don’t want it to be available. If it was published somewhere else without permission and you are unable to remove it from that site, you may now ask Google to remove it from search results. Note that this rule does not apply to the content you market.

It is not uncommon for site owners who manage sexual content to report content from elsewhere. Removing this kind of content from Google’s search results will not make them disappear completely from the web, but these will become much harder to find. You can search for “request removals” in the Google Help Center if needed.

In addition, Google deploys updates for parental control and SafeSearch. Google will now blur explicit content in default search results, an initiative announced a few months ago. You can disable this blurring by SafeSearch in your settings, unless an administrator has locked this setting on your account.

Finally, it becomes easier to access parental control from search. Simply type “google parental control” or “google family link” to see information about these settings.