Worried that your personal contact details have appeared online? Google’s new tool will help remove them – Technology News, Firstpost

FP staff30 Sep 2022 15:30:21 IST

Back in May of this year, Google at its annual I/O developer conference announced that they will release a new tool to assist users in the process of removing search results that have shown their contact details and other personally identifiable information, or PII. Now Google has launched the service and made it available to its users.

Starting today, users can find a new About You menu in the Google app on Android under My Profile. Users are taken to a page that explains how they can ask Google to remove search results that contain phone numbers, home addresses, email or other personally identifiable information.

When a user finds something while browsing, they can click the three-dot menu that appears in the upper right corner of each result. The existing “About this result” panel opens with a new “Delete result” option that appears at the bottom of the user’s screen.

After completing this process, users have the option to monitor the completion of removal requests. In addition to the All Requests feed, users will also have filters like In Progress and Approved. You can also make a new request on this page with a step-by-step guide that includes the question “Why do you want to remove this result?” a step

Users will be able to choose from many options. This includes flagging information that reveals personal contact information, displaying personal contact information with intent to cause harm, displaying illegal information, or to display outdated or incorrect information.

An upcoming update to the feature will allow users to “turn on alerts when new results with your contact information appear so you can quickly request their removal.” Those announcements will reportedly come early next year. When available, users will be able to receive notifications about new Google search results containing their contact information so that they can quickly request its removal if they wish.

Google says the ‘Results About You’ tool will be available to all US English users in the next few weeks. The tool will be available to users in other countries soon, before the end of the year.

This new tool comes at a time when there has been a lot of discussion about threats related to actions that are a way to threaten or harass someone by revealing their personal information to the public without their permission.

This is often done to silence someone because of their beliefs or opinions and is considered a form of cyberbullying. But unlike traditional internet trolling, where abusers can simply be blocked and reported, doxing can cause harm in the real world as people’s home addresses and contact information are exposed.