In this era, where personal data often feels like it belongs to everyone but ourselves. However, Google is taking a significant step toward giving users back some control. As part of a series of updates for a safer internet, Google is expanding its “Results about you” tool to include government-issued IDs, allowing you to remove data from search results with some of the most sensitive pieces of information we own: government-issued IDs.
How to wipe your Social Security Number, ID, and more from Google Search results
The “Results about you” dashboard (accessible from this link) was already useful. This feature lets you remove search results that contain your home addresses, emails, or phone numbers. However, the latest update significantly raises the stakes. Users in the U.S. can now actively search for and request the removal of results displaying their driver’s licenses, passports, and Social Security numbers.
The process is designed to be proactive. Once you add your details to the tool, Google monitors the web and notifies you if your sensitive data appears in a search result. From there, you can submit a removal request with a few taps. As Google itself points out, this doesn’t erase the data from the entire internet. However, it effectively hides it from the world’s most popular gateway. The improvement should make it much harder for malicious actors to find.
A simplified path to removing explicit content
Google is also addressing the deeply personal issue of non-consensual explicit images. Removing such content has historically been a slow and taxing process, but new updates aim to change that.
Users can now initiate a removal request directly from Google Images. By clicking the three-dot menu on a specific result, a new option allows you to report that an image shows you without your consent. To make the process more efficient, Google now allows users to select and submit multiple images in a single form. Perhaps most importantly, a new “proactive filtering” option helps ensure that similar explicit results don’t reappear in future searches, acting as a digital shield.
Many could have concerns regarding the security of the information they provide to the tool. To address this, Google uses advanced encryption to protect the data shared for monitoring.
Availability
The expanded ID removal is starting in the U.S. On the other hand, the improved tools for removing explicit images are rolling out to most countries immediately. Privacy tools often fail because they are too difficult to find or use. With that in mind, it seems Google wants to make the process much simpler and less intimidating.
The post Google Search Can Now Help You Remove Your Government IDs from Results appeared first on Android Headlines.
