People are selling your home address online. This privacy tool will help
An untold number of companies are selling personal information such as your name, home address and phone number online. Known as data brokers, these companies collect and sell personal data to anyone willing to pay, from telemarketers to identity thieves.
But a free tool from Google can make that information harder to find.
The service, called Results About You, allows users to request the removal of sensitive personal information from Google search results. Despite its usefulness, many people appear to be unaware that the tool exists.
Google continuously scans the internet to power its search engine, indexing information from countless websites, including data broker pages that publish personal details. Through this process, sensitive information about individuals can become easily searchable.
Results About You gives users a simple way to request the removal of links that display personal details such as names, addresses, phone numbers or email addresses.
“This is kind of a no-brainer,” says Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a US-based digital rights organization.
He describes Results About You as one of the most accessible privacy tools available.
“In terms of tools that require almost no effort, it’s probably number one,” Klosowski says. “Quick access to this kind of information can be used in ways both big and small.”
Once the tool is activated, Google sends notifications when it detects personal details such as your name, email address, phone number or home address appearing in search results. Users can then review and request the removal of those links.
In the United States, the service can also flag particularly sensitive information such as Social Security numbers and passport or driver’s license details.
Using the automated system requires a Google account, though users can also submit manual removal requests directly from search results by selecting the three-dot menu next to a link and choosing “Remove result”.
What the tool cannot do
While Results About You can improve online privacy, it does not remove the information from the original websites where it appears. Instead, it removes links to those pages from Google Search.
That distinction is important.
“If very determined people want to find you, they will,” Klosowski says. “But Google is so ubiquitous and easy to use that removing the most obvious results adds an important layer of protection.”
Crucially, the tool cannot remove data circulating through hacked databases or information traded on underground forums following data breaches.
For complete removal, users must contact data broker websites directly and request that their data be deleted.
Some paid services offer to do this on a user’s behalf, though it can also be done manually.
Privacy concerns
Setting up Results About You requires users to submit personal information — such as names, addresses or phone numbers, so that Google can search for those details.
That requirement may raise concerns for some users given the company’s long history of collecting large amounts of data.
However, Klosowski notes that Google likely already holds much of this information through its existing services.
Google says information submitted to Results About You is used only for removal requests and not for other purposes. The company also says the system uses strong security and encryption protections.
How to get started
To activate the tool, users can visit the Results About You hub and submit the personal information they want Google to monitor.
If problematic search results appear later, users can request removal directly through Google Search.
In some cases, Google will also remove results containing personal information about family members. However, not all content qualifies for removal. Information published on government or news websites, for example, is generally exempt.
A small step with big impact
According to Google, more than 10 million people have used Results About You since its launch in 2022.
While that number may sound large, it represents only a small fraction of the company’s estimated 1.8 billion Google accounts.
For privacy advocates, that gap highlights how many people remain unaware of the tool.
It may not eliminate personal information from the internet entirely, but experts say it can still make a meaningful difference.
By removing the easiest paths to personal data, tools like Results About You help ensure that finding someone’s private information online is no longer effortless.
