How To Remove Unwanted Information from Google

You Google yourself and what do you find? With over 1 trillion pages indexed it's very hard to hide from the search giant. Here are the ways to remove yourself or unwanted information online that may be tied to you or your business. 

All of your personal information is posted online and often times this is information that you would prefer be private. For example your personal credit card data might have been hacked and leaked onto the internet. In instances where you have your personal Social Security Number, Credit Card Information, Bank Account numbers, and personal Signatures that may be copied by unscrupulous individuals can be requested for removal directly from Google. 

If this is the case then go ahead and fill out a Request to Remove Personal Information From Google. 
 

Removing Personal Aggregated Data 

If the information is your date of birth, home address, and telephone number then you will not be able to rely on Google to remove it on your own. Instead there are privacy protection services that use social engineering resources to get this removed. Right now there are approximately 106 different websites that aggregate your personal data and home owner information and share this public record data. 

People Search, Background Check websites, Real Estate aggregators like Blockshopper.com, and Business Listings websites all fall into this category. Sites like Privacyduck offers these basic removal services for a monthly fee ranging from $50 to $350. In some instances the registered agent information will have to be changed as these aggregators automatically pull public record business data.

An example of a case where I personally worked with Privacy Duck services was for a south Florida businessman who wanted to remove ex-employees that were tied to his online profiles. This required filing snail mail paperwork and sending it to the State of Florida. Once updated by the state the aggregators would then be able to update their information online. 

If what you are wanting to remove is a mugshot then you would be surprised that the majority of the mugshot websites offer to remove your photo for a processing fee. Instead of fighting this it's often easier to just pay the fee and be done with it. In a note of positive news Google did recently adjust their algorithms and it has negatively affected the rankings of mugshot websites. 

Deleting Defamatory Content Online

There are a few options and ways to remove defamatory content online or results that appear on consumer venting sites like ripoffreport.com & scambook.com. These websites hide behind what is known as CDA 230 Immunity meaning that anybody can post what they want on somebody else's website without having the webmaster being held liable. Since this is the case you can not litigate against the owner of the website but rather you have to go after the actual poster and come to an agreement with them to have the content removed.
 

Removing Ripoff Reports and Other Libelous Information Permanently 

Services such as the guaranteed removals from specialized reputation companies will help to negotiate on your behalf with the poster of the defamatory or negative content to help get it removed or deleted. In some instances the poster may not be able to take the content down and a lawyer may need to be involved where a court order will be served to the given search engines to have them remove the content from their search indexes if they deem fit. 

In a recent example a Fort Lauderdale based reputation defender helped a renowned New York businessman to remove a false complaint that was damaging his business causing him to lose thousands of dollars each month that it was online. This process took 6 weeks but often times permanent removals can take closer to 6 months to complete. 

It takes more resources today to conduct a google search then it did to put a man on the moon. At the Google campus in Mountain View, California there is a Nasa space shuttle outside of the conference rooms. This is there as a stark reminder about how much data is compiled and sifted through for any given search query. 

If you see unwanted information about you on Google and want it deleted follow the tips above.