Get an Email Alert Anytime Someone Uses Google to Search for You online
Google has a feature called Results About You that alerts you when your personal information gets posted online. This feature uses Google Search to scan the web for your name, address, phone number, email address, and other personal information. When it finds your information on a website, it sends you an email alert.
You can pair the Results About You feature with the Remove Your Result tool to make it difficult for people to find your personal information online. The Remove Your Result tool allows you to request that Google remove links to specific websites from its search results.
To use the Results About You feature, you need to have a Google Account. Once you have a Google Account, you can go to the Results About You website and sign in. The “Results About You” dashboard will send notifications every time new results appear.
In a time when the personal and financial data of billions of people is floating around online, ripe for exploitation by data brokers, privacy has become a major concern. Google acknowledged this issue when it launched the Results About You tool.
It’s important to note that Google cannot remove all personal information from the web. However, the Results About You feature and the Remove Your Result tool can help you make your personal information more difficult to find online.
Here are some tips for using the Results About You feature and the Remove Your Result tool:
- Review your Results About You alerts regularly and request that Google remove any links to websites you don’t want to appear in search results.
- Be sure to update your Results About You profile with any changes to your personal information.
- Be careful about sharing your personal information online. Only
- share your information with websites and organizations that you trust.
When you visit Google’s Results About You website, you’ll find it’s easy to use. You can get a good idea of what to expect when you visit the Results About You website from the screenshots below. These screenshots were taken after logging in to my Google account.
Fill in the forms and get notified when someone searches Google for you
Be sure that you fill in all information correctly on the Google Results About You website. When you’ve completed filling out the forms, you’ll be notified by email anytime someone searches for you online using Google.
Important note: Google’s “Results About You” tool is currently available to everyone with a Gmail account in the United States, Australia, and select European countries. Google is planning to roll this service out to more countries in the future.
WOW! Thanks for the info about ‘Resul++-++-ts about you”…don’t think I have anything to hide but for people that do…COOL!
Thank you for sharing this info. It is a wonderful tool and has found several things that I have been able to get deleted or turned off.
Thanks for this. I’ve been using it to try and keep my contact info private. Former in-law that I don’t trust.
In filling out the Google form wouldn’t you be exposing your private information?
How would Google know if your personal information is being exposed unless they had your personal information?
I give up. I didn’t know that this can be so complicated.
It was your email address that was being rejected as spam. I had to tell the system that it was not spam. It’s fixed now.
Sounds good, but….. they are also asking for ALL my personal information…… so it’s another place asking that can use/sell do whatever with it…… do we trust google?
How else would they know if your personal info was found on the web unless the had the personal info you wanted them to notify you about. At some point you have to trust someone.