Google Announces New Features to Help Protect Your Privacy

Google Announces New Features to Help Protect Your Privacy, Prior to this update, Google released the “Results about you tool” to make it easy for users to request the removal of search results that contain personal phone numbers, home addresses, or email, right from the Google app or however you access Search. But now, Google has significantly updated and improved the tool, making it keep track of users’ personal contact information in Search, and alert you when Google finds it, so you can get it removed.

Google Announces New Features to Help Protect Your Privacy

Google has announced a number of new privacy tools to help users stay safe and in control online. These tools include:

SafeSearch Blurring: This new setting will blur explicit imagery by default when it appears in Search results. This can help protect users, especially children, from inadvertently encountering this type of content. According to Google blog, “The new SafeSearch blurring setting is rolling out for all users globally this month. You can adjust your settings and turn it off at any time, unless a guardian or school network administrator has locked the setting.”

“Results About You” tool: This tool allows users to request the removal of search results that contain their personal contact information, such as their phone number, home address, or email address. This can help users protect their privacy and control how their information is displayed online.

 Danielle Romain, VP Trust, wrote, “For example, if you created and uploaded explicit content to a website, then deleted it, you can request its removal from Search if it’s being published elsewhere without approval. This policy doesn’t apply to content you are currently commercializing”.

“More broadly, whether it’s for websites containing personal information, explicit imagery or any other removal requests, we’ve updated and simplified the forms you use to submit requests. Of course, removing content from Google Search does not remove it from the web or other search engines, but we hope these changes give you more control over private information appearing in Google Search”.

Improved Parental Controls: Google is making it easier to find and manage parental controls directly in Search. This can help parents keep their children safe online by restricting their access to certain types of content.

These new privacy tools are a welcome addition to Google’s suite of security features. They can help users stay safe and in control online, and they are a step in the right direction for Google’s commitment to privacy.

This tool can be access in the Google app by clicking on your Google account photo and selecting “Results about you”, or by visiting goo.gle/resultsaboutyou. This tool is available in the U.S. in English to start, and we’re working to bring it to new languages and locations soon.

These are just a few of the new privacy tools that Google is offering. For more information, you can visit the Google Safety Center: https://safety.google/.

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