The Importance of Removing Personal Information From Google Results
In recent years it has become increasingly apparent that personal information shared online may become increasingly accessible in public spaces on the internet. What was perhaps shared in certain “private” areas of the internet, such as on one’s social media site where only friends and family were supposed to have access, may not actually be as private and safe as one would hope or think it is. If you take the time to Google your name, you may find a bunch of information that you’d rather keep private, or even a view of your home on Google Street View.
Obviously, the first reason you may have for removing personal information from Google results is to keep yourself and your family safe. Private information that is shared publicly can obviously be abused by less-than-ethical individuals who have their own best interests at heart. Another reason you should have for removing personal information from Google results is to safeguard your public image. Even if your personal information and life doesn’t reveal any particularly shocking information, it can yet have an adverse effect on your public image, and therefore on your business.
Removing Personal Information From Google Results
It’s important to recognize that removing your personal information from Google results may be more easily said than done, especially if you are not the site owner for these pages, with very few, specific exceptions. You can try contacting the site owner and politely requesting that they remove your personal information from their pages, or at least block the content with your personal information from search engines, but this can be a long, difficult process. It is far easier to assume that anything and everything you post online, including reviews, photos, posts in discussion forums and anything on social networks could potentially be called up in Google results, and then restrict your posts and keep them as secure as you can. This will cause fewer headaches in the long run, and will help you to better protect your privacy.
