Google will alert you if your personal information has been leaked

Google just announced its next expansion Privacy Tool. Created to protect your personally identifiable information (PII) from being easily found, the Results About You tool was first announced in May 2022. It will soon begin rolling out to a wider audience, and as soon as it becomes available, you can request that your personal data be easily deleted.

At the moment Search 22Google has shared that it will extend this tool with an additional useful feature: the ability to set alerts if and when personally identifiable information appears on the web.

Most of us have Googled our names at one time or another, if only out of curiosity. Sometimes these searches can provide unwanted results. If you search Google yourself and find that your personal information has been shared without your consent, you can ask Google to remove it. Previously, this mainly included bank information and credit card numbers, but earlier this year Google expanded this group.

Now, if you find your physical address, phone number, and/or email address online, you can ask Google to take care of it for you and remove it. However, with the new privacy tool introducing Results About You, doing so will be easier. You just need to click on the three dots next to the search result, request deletion, and then monitor the status of your request.

While searching on 22, Google announced that this feature will soon begin rolling out to users within the US using the English search engine, with a global rollout to follow (likely) at a later date. Google also revealed that it is taking privacy protection a step further by expanding the tool.

Starting in early 2023, you will be able to set alerts about your personal information that appears in search results. If a new entry appears with any of your personally identifiable information, Google will notify you so you can request removal as soon as possible. While this doesn’t delete data from the actual website it appeared on, it will go one step further to make sure it’s hard to find.

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