Your data can be protected in just two minutes with a Google tool.
Discreet intermediaries sell personal data without consent. To counteract this, Google offers a free and simple tool that is still largely unknown.
Specialized companies, so-called “data brokers,” continuously sell our personal information online: names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. It is accessible to anyone willing to buy it, from simple telemarketers to all kinds of cybercriminals.
As the BBC reports, Google offers a free service to protect against this exposure of personal data: “Search results about you”. This allows users to delete applications and search results relating to them.
How does that work?
Once activated, the service will notify you via email as soon as your information appears in Google search results. In the US, the service also covers Social Security numbers and data from identification documents. A Google account is required for the automated version, although there is also a manual option that doesn’t require registration.
Thorin Klosowski, an activist for security and data protection at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a North American organization for the protection of digital rights, says:
“That’s obvious. As far as immediately available features without any effort are concerned, it’s probably the number one service.”
A conversation was held.
It’s important to understand that the tool only removes the links from the search results, without altering the original pages. Content published by government websites or news media is explicitly excluded from this process: Google will not remove it.
It also doesn’t cover data resulting from hacks or data leaks. So it’s not complete protection, but, as Klosowski notes:
“If determined people want to find you, they will. But Google is so ubiquitous and easy to use that it’s very helpful to remove the most sensitive and obvious information. This eliminates the first layer of easily discoverable information.”
Further information
For more comprehensive data deletion, the BBC explains, one must contact data brokers directly or use specialized services such as Incogni. Since its launch in 2022, “Search results about you” has had more than 10 million users, which, however, represents only a fraction of the 1.8 billion active Google accounts.
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