Opt-Out Ledger

Google Results About You: How to Remove Your Contact Info From Search

Quick answer: Results About You lets you ask Google to remove search results that show your personal contact information — but it only hides the result in Google Search. The page itself stays online until you also opt out at the site that published it.

Last checked: October 25, 2026

What Results About You Does

Results About You is a free Google tool, available at myactivity.google.com/results-about-you, that helps you find and request removal of Google Search results containing your personal information.

You tell Google the contact details you want to watch for — your name, home address, phone numbers, and email addresses. Google then shows you search results that appear to contain that information, and lets you submit a removal request for each one. If Google approves the request, that result no longer appears in Google Search for searches related to your information.

The tool also monitors going forward. When Google finds new results matching your details, it can notify you, so a listing that appears next month does not sit unnoticed until you happen to search your own name again.

It is the fastest single step in this whole process: one account, a few minutes of setup, and you get both a cleanup list and an early-warning system. Our master checklist for removing yourself from data brokers places it after the big people search opt-outs, for the reason explained next.

The One Crucial Limit: Hidden Is Not Deleted

This distinction decides whether your cleanup actually holds:

If you only remove the Google result, the listing itself is still live. Anyone can reach it through another search engine, a direct link, the site's own search box, or a different search phrasing. Listings that stay live also tend to be re-indexed, copied by other sites, or to resurface.

So the correct order is:

  1. Opt out at the source. Remove the listing at the people search site or broker first — for example through our guides to Spokeo opt-out, Whitepages opt-out, and PeopleConnect opt-out, which covers TruthFinder, Intelius, Instant Checkmate, and US Search in one suppression.
  2. Remove the Google result. Use Results About You to clear the search result that pointed to it.
  3. Recheck. If the source page is gone but a result still shows, use the outdated content tool described below.

Think of Results About You as turning off the signpost. The opt-out at the source is what closes the building.

What Changed in February 2026

In February 2026, Google expanded Results About You beyond contact information. The tool now also covers results that expose government-issued ID numbers, such as passport numbers, driver's license numbers, and Social Security numbers.

That expansion matters because ID numbers in search results usually come from a more serious exposure than a marketing list — a leaked document, a poorly redacted filing, or a scam site republishing stolen data. If the tool flags a result containing an ID number, treat it as a priority: remove the Google result, go to the source page, and consider whether the exposure warrants a fraud alert or credit freeze as well.

The process is the same dashboard; the category is simply broader than it was before February 2026.

Step by Step: Set Up Results About You

1. Go to the tool and sign in

Open myactivity.google.com/results-about-you and sign in with the Google account you want the monitoring attached to. The tool is tied to your account, so use one you check regularly.

2. Add your contact details

Enter the name variations, address, phone numbers, and email addresses you want Google to watch for. Include a previous address if listings still use it — many broker profiles do.

Accuracy matters here the same way it does with California's DROP system: Google can only flag results that match the details you provide.

3. Choose how you want to be notified

Set your notification preference so new matching results are brought to you instead of waiting for your next manual check. Without notifications, the tool is a one-time sweep; with them, it becomes monitoring.

4. Review the results Google finds

Google will present a queue of results that appear to contain your information. Open each one and confirm it is actually about you — common names produce false positives, and there is no benefit to requesting removal of someone else's listing.

5. Submit a removal request for each result

For each result that is yours and shows personal contact information, submit the removal request from within the tool. Google reviews requests against its personal information policies; straightforward contact-information listings are the core case the tool is built for.

6. Track the decisions

The dashboard shows the status of each request. Approved requests disappear from Search for the relevant queries. If a request is denied, the usual reason is that the page does not meet the policy as submitted — check whether the source page is still live, complete the opt-out there, and resubmit with the source already removed.

7. Repeat as alerts arrive

Each notification is a small task, not a new project: check the result, opt out at the source if it is a new listing, then request removal of the result. Ten minutes at a time keeps the original cleanup intact. This fits the quarterly recheck rhythm in our start-here checklist.

When the Page Is Already Gone: Outdated Content Removal

Sometimes you will do everything right — the broker confirms deletion, the profile page returns a "not found" error — yet Google still displays the old title and a snippet describing your address.

That is a stale index entry, and there is a separate tool for it: Google's Remove Outdated Content tool. Use it when the live page no longer exists or no longer shows the information, but the search result has not caught up. Submit the URL, and Google will re-check the page and update or remove the outdated result.

Use the right tool for the situation:

What This Tool Cannot Do

To keep expectations accurate:

Used correctly — source first, search result second, monitoring on — Results About You is the best free maintenance tool in this space. Used alone, it hides the problem from Google while leaving it in place everywhere else.

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