How to Remove Your Personal Information From Google Search

To remove your personal information from Google Search, use Google's free Results about you tool at goo.gle/resultsaboutyou to find and request removal of results that show your contact details, then remove the information at its source by opting out of the people-search sites those results come from. Both matter, because Google does not host your data. It only indexes pages other websites publish, so hiding a result without removing the source usually means it comes back.

This is the single most important thing to understand before you start, and it is the thing most guides skip. Google is a search engine, not a database of you. When your name, address, or phone number shows up in a Google search, that information lives on some other website, very often a people-search site like Whitepages, Spokeo, or BeenVerified. Google is just pointing to it. That means real removal is two jobs at once: clear the result from Google, and clear the data from the site Google is pointing to.

Why does my personal information appear on Google?

Because it is published somewhere Google can reach. The most common source is people-search and background-check sites, which compile your details from public records and sell access, and Google indexes those pages like any other. Your information can also surface from your own social media, old accounts, company or organization pages, news articles, and public documents. People-search listings are usually the ones you can do the most about, since they exist only to expose you and they offer opt-outs.

How do I use Google's Results about you tool?

Results about you is a free privacy dashboard inside your Google account that scans Search for your contact information, alerts you when it appears, and lets you request removals from one place. Steps verified as current for 2026:

1. Sign in to your Google account, then go to goo.gle/resultsaboutyou, or open the Google app, tap your profile photo, and choose Results about you.
2. Click Get started and add the personal contact information you want monitored, such as your name, home address, phone numbers, and email addresses. Google uses this only to match results, not to personalize anything.
3. As of a February 2026 update, you can also add government-issued ID numbers to monitor for, like a driver's license, passport, or Social Security number.
4. Turn on notifications so Google alerts you, usually within a few hours and then whenever new matching results appear.
5. Open the To review tab to see matches. Selecting a result shows the website it comes from and what personal information it contains.
6. Request removal for any result showing your contact details. Following a 2026 redesign, you can also click the three-dot menu next to a result directly in Google Search and submit a removal in a few clicks.
7. Track each request under the Removal requests section. Google reviews them individually and may keep results it judges to be in the public interest.

What are Google's other removal tools?

Results about you covers contact details. For other situations Google offers separate tools. The Personal Content Removal request form handles sensitive information like financial account numbers, medical records, or images being used to harm you, and it is also where doxxing content goes, meaning your private information posted alongside threats or with no legitimate purpose. The Outdated Content tool is different: it only refreshes Google's index after a page has already been changed or taken down, so it does not remove anything still live. Use the removal forms for live sensitive content, and the Outdated tool only for cleanup afterward.

Why did Google deny my removal request?

Usually for one reason: the information is still live and unchanged on the website Google is indexing. This is the crux of the whole process. Google can remove a result, but it cannot delete content from the site that published it, and when the underlying page is still up, Google often declines to hide the result. If a people-search listing still displays your address, the durable fix is not to keep asking Google, it is to get the listing itself removed. Do that, and the Google result loses its source.

How do I remove the source, not just the result?

Go to each site showing you and use its opt-out. For a single people-search listing that means finding your profile, submitting the site's removal request, and confirming by email. Once the page is gone or set to private, Google's result has nothing left to point to, and using the Outdated Content tool can then speed up the refresh. This is the half of the job that actually keeps information down, and it is also the slowest and most repetitive, because there are dozens of these sites and each has its own process. Our guide on how to disappear from the internet walks through the wider cleanup.

Does removed information come back on Google?

Often, yes, and this is where people lose the ground they gained. Even after a result is removed, people-search sites rebuild their listings from fresh data, a new page goes up at a new address, and it gets indexed all over again. Results about you helps by monitoring and re-flagging, but you still have to act each time. Consumer Reports put numbers to how leaky one-time removal is: opt-outs done through automated tools or by hand cleared only about 27 percent of exposed listings, while removals carried out by real people who keep watch and refile reached roughly 70 percent. Clearing your Google results once is a snapshot. Keeping them clear is the work.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Results about you tool free?

Yes, it is completely free and built into your Google account. Google has said more than 10 million people have used it to manage how their contact information appears in Search. You only need a Google account and a few minutes to set up monitoring.

Does removing a result delete the information from the internet?

No. Removing a result from Google only stops it appearing in Google Search. The content stays on the original website, and other search engines may still show it. To take it off the internet, you have to get the source site to remove it, which is why the opt-out step matters.

How long does Google take to remove a result?

Approved requests can take from a few days to a few weeks to stop appearing. If a request is denied because the source page is still live, the timeline resets around getting that page removed first, then resubmitting or using the Outdated Content tool.

What about Bing and other search engines?

Bing and others have their own removal tools and do not follow Google's decisions. The efficient approach is to remove the information at its source, since that clears it from every search engine at once rather than fighting each one separately.