"Don't Google yourself" is terrible advice. If there's personal information
about you floating around on the web, you should be aware of it��"because,
despite common misconceptions, the internet is not written in ink. If your info
is popping up on Google Search, you might be able to get rid of it.

On Wednesday, Google announced its redesigned "Results about you" tool. This
feature, first rolled out in 2023, looks out for your personal information on
Google Search, including your name, phone number, email addresses, and home
addresses. The tool then tries to remove any information it does find. Note that
this doesn't necessarily delete that information from the website in question;
rather, it affects outdated info that appears in Search. For example, you
requested a site take down your address, or you edited a webpage to reflect your
new phone number, but that deleted data still shows up when people search your
name.

Here's how the tool works. First, head to the "Results about you" website. If
this is your initial experience with Results about you, click Get started.
You'll be presented with a series of pop-ups, walking you through what to
expect: You share your personal info, and Google scans the web looking for that
info. If Google finds that info, you can ask the company to remove it.

Click Next through each pop-up, then punch in your personal information, which
includes your full name, nicknames, home address, phone number, and email. For
example, I included my full name, a nickname, two recent addresses, my phone
number, and three email addresses. Confirm you are indeed the person who this
contact info belongs to, then hit Continue.

From here, you'll have the option to choose how you want to receive alerts if
Google finds your information on the web. You can have Google email you, send
you push notifications through the Google app, or both. Once these settings are
confirmed, you're done! Google says the process usually takes a few hours, and
the company will notify you when it is finished��"presumably via the alert
method you previously chose.

Heading back to the Results about you dashboard, you'll find a "Results found"
section, which will list any personal information Google happened to find in its
search. There are two categories: "Results to review," which lists any data
Google returns, and "Reviewed," which stores any results you've already checked
out. Under Settings, you can change how Google notifies you with its results, as
well as any of the data you want Google looking for.

When you do ask Google to remove a piece of personal information from Search,
you'll find that inquiry is added to a section beneath "Results found" called
"Removal requests." Here, you'll see whether your requests are in progress,
approved, denied, or undone (if you decide to undo a request).

You can also send a request to remove a result from the search page itself. Just
click the three dots next to any given search result, and choose "Remove this
result." Then, select the reason why��"likely, "It shows my personal info and I
don't want it there."

http://goo.gle/resultsaboutyou

... TCOB1: https://binkd.rima.ie telnet: binkd.rima.ie:10023

--- BBBS/LiR v4.10 Toy-7
 * Origin: TCOB1: https/binkd/telnet binkd.rima.ie (618:500/1)