Google's Results about you tool: what it removes and what it can't

Most people never visit a people-search site on purpose. They find their own listing the way a stranger would: by typing their name into Google and seeing their street address in the third result. That is why Google's "Results about you" tool is worth setting up, and also why it is easy to expect too much of it.

The tool does one job well. It watches Google Search for results that show your personal contact details, tells you when it finds them, and lets you ask Google to drop those results from Search. It does not touch the website that published the details. Keep that distinction in mind and everything else about the tool makes sense.

What follows is a walkthrough of what you will see at each step, what it means, and where it fits next to the opt-outs you file with the sites themselves. Features and wording are as Google describes them on its help pages at the time of writing.

Getting there

You reach the tool through your Google Account. In the Google app, tap your profile picture or initial and choose "Results about you". On a computer or a phone browser, Google's help page for the tool links straight to it. Google says some features are still rolling out, and that they are for users over 18 in certain markets.

There is no charge, but you do need to be signed in, because the tool keeps your details and your requests attached to your account.

Setting it up: what you will see and what it means

The sign-up screen

What you see: a "Get started" button, then a form asking for your name and the contact details you want Google to look for.

What it means: Google uses what you enter to check Search results for pages that mention you together with those details. The form takes more than people expect, and it is worth using all of it:

• A nickname, and a maiden name or former name if you have one
• More than one personal phone number
• More than one home address, including old ones
• More than one email address

Old addresses are the ones people forget. A people-search listing often shows a place you left ten years ago, and if you only enter your current address, the tool has nothing to match that page against.

Adding ID numbers (US)

What you see: after the contact details, a prompt to add government ID numbers.

What it means: in February 2026 Google expanded the tool so it can look for results that contain your driver's license number, passport number or Social Security number, starting in the US. Google says it protects what you enter with encryption and access controls, and that it does not use it to personalize other Google products.

This step is your call. From the compliance side, my view is that sensitive identifiers should go only where they do real work. If you decide to add an ID number, add it knowing why. If you would rather not, the contact monitoring still works on its own. You can also remove everything later from the tool's settings with "Remove all personal info".

Notifications

What you see: an option to get email notifications, and notifications in the Google app.

What it means: turn these on. Google says that if notifications are on, you will hear within a few hours whether any results matched your details, and again later whenever new matching results appear. This is the part of the tool that keeps working after you stop thinking about it, and it is how you catch a listing that comes back.

The "To review" tab

What you see: a list of results, each showing the website it comes from and which of your details it contains.

What it means: this is your first look at your own exposure through Google's eyes. For each result you can choose "Request to remove" or "Mark as reviewed". Mark as reviewed is for results you are fine with, such as your own business page.

You may notice that some results have no remove option at all. Google treats certain results as valuable to the public, including government and educational websites, online newspapers and business websites. For those, the only route is to ask the website itself.

After you request removal

What you see: an email confirming the request, and later an email with the decision. In the tool, the "Removal requests" section lists each request with a status: In progress, Approved, Denied or Undone.

What it means: each request keeps a record with the page you flagged, the date and time you submitted it, a request ID, and the contact details you flagged on the page. Copy the request ID into your removal log. Google also warns that there can be a delay between approval and the result disappearing from Search, so give it a little time before you search again.

When a request is approved, one of two things usually happens. Most of the time the page stops appearing for any search. Sometimes Google applies what it calls a query-based removal: the page stops appearing for searches that include your name, but can still show up for other searches. Google uses this when the page also has content that is valuable to the public or information about other people.

What Google will remove, and what it won't

Through Results about you, Google may approve removal of results that show your phone number, home address or email address, and now ID numbers. Requests still have to pass a short policy test:

• It has to be your personal information. Work contact details posted with intent to harm you go through Google's detailed removal request form instead.
• You can't control it yourself. If the details are on your own social media profile or your own blog, Google expects you to take them down there.
• It isn't considered valuable to the public. Pages from government and educational institutions and from newspapers are the clearest examples.

Outside this tool, Google has broader removal policies for Search. Its page on removing private information from Google Search covers confidential government ID numbers, bank account and card numbers, images of your signature or ID, private records such as medical records, and confidential usernames and passwords. The same page covers doxxing: content that pairs your personal information with threats, or that gathers a large amount of personal information about you with no legitimate purpose.

Sexual images are handled separately. Google's page on removing personal sexual content covers real images shared without consent, fake or AI-made images that falsely show you nude or in a sexual act, and pages that link your name to sexual material for no reason. Anyone can report sexual content showing someone under 18.

The part the tool can't do

Here is the limit, in Google's own framing: removing a result from Search does not mean the information is gone from the internet. The source page still exists. Anyone who searches the people-search site directly, or uses another search engine, can still find it. And the site can keep selling the "full report" behind the free page.

So the tool is half of the job. The other half is removing the listing at its source, which is what the opt-outs on each site are for. Our guide to removing your information from people-search sites lists the big sites and their forms, and I walked through three of the largest in detail in how to remove yourself from Whitepages, Spokeo and BeenVerified.

There is a useful link between the two halves. If a site has already removed your details but Google still shows the old snippet, you do not need a removal request. Open the three-dot menu next to the result and ask Google to refresh it. Google says its systems will recrawl the page and pick up the current version.

A routine that uses both

This is the order I suggest, because each step makes the next one easier.

1. Set up Results about you with every name variant, phone, address and email you have used, and turn notifications on.
2. Work through the "To review" tab. For each result, note which website it comes from.
3. Opt out at the source first for every people-search site on the list, using that site's own form. Our opt-out checklist keeps track of which you have done.
4. Request removal in Google for results that remain, or that come from sites with no working opt-out.
5. Refresh results that still show old details after a site has removed them.
6. Log every request ID and confirmation date, so you know what you did if something reappears.
7. Let the notifications do the watching. When a new result arrives, repeat steps 3 to 6 for that one page.

That last step is what turns a returning listing into a small chore instead of a surprise. I explained why they come back in why people-search listings return after you opt out; the notifications are the simplest early warning I know of.

Questions people ask

Does Google do anything else with the details I enter?

Google says it uses them for monitoring, for processing your removal requests, for improving that process and for showing you your request history, and that it does not use them to personalize ads or other products. If you stop using the tool, remove your details from its settings.

Can I do this for a parent, a partner or a child?

Not through your own Results about you account. Google says a request made from your account on behalf of someone else may be denied, and points people to its detailed removal request form instead. The same form is the route for results that show personal information about anyone under 18.

What if my request is denied?

You get an email, and the reason appears in the tool. A common reason is that the page is on a site Google considers valuable to the public, or that the details are ones you control yourself. In either case, contacting the website owner is the next step.

Can I change my mind?

Yes. Choose "Undo" on the request, and the page can appear in results again. Google notes that this does not guarantee it will, because someone else may have had the same page removed.

What about a listing behind a paywall?

You can still ask for removal. If the tool found the result for you, start the request from the notification. If you found it yourself, use the detailed removal request form.

The one thing to remember

Results about you controls what Google shows, not what the site holds. Use it as an alarm and a filter, keep filing opt-outs at the source, and write down every request so the next round takes minutes instead of an evening.