Google launched Results About You quietly, and a lot of people who stumble across it ask the same first question: is this actually a real tool, or is it a phishing page dressed up to look official? It is a fair question. The answer is that it is a genuine Google product. But real does not automatically mean useful, and that is what this article is actually about.
Is Results About You Legit, or Just Another Empty Promise?
Yes, the tool is legitimate. You reach it at myactivity.google.com/results-about-you, or through your profile icon in the Google app, which is about as official as it gets. The tool exists, it works in a narrow sense, and it is free. The question worth asking is not whether it is real — it is whether it solves the problem you actually have.
This article explains what the tool does, where it stops, and what else you need to do if you are genuinely worried about your personal details appearing online.
What the Tool Actually Does
Results About You lets you ask Google to stop showing specific search results that contain your home address, personal phone number, or email address. That is the scope. Nothing wider.
It does not delete anything from the website that published your information. If a data broker site lists your address, that page still exists after a successful removal request. Google simply stops linking to it from its own search results. The data stays; the signpost disappears.
The tool also includes a dashboard that monitors for new results containing your details. When Google spots something new, it sends you an alert so you can submit a fresh removal request. This matters because the problem tends to recur — data does not stay removed on its own.
One important limit: this only covers Google Search. Bing, DuckDuckGo, and every other search engine are completely unaffected. If someone uses a different search engine to look you up, your results there are unchanged.
Why Scammers and Data Brokers Make This Complicated
Data broker sites — names like Spokeo, WhitePages, BeenVerified, and Intelius in the US, and a quieter set of marketing and tracing firms in the UK — scrape public records and package them into personal profiles anyone can buy or view. Your name, address, phone number, relatives’ names, and rough age can all appear there, often without you ever signing up for anything.
Scammers buy this data. A fraudster running a phone scam sounds far more convincing when they already know your street address and can name a family member. That is not a coincidence — it is a tactic built on broker data.
Removing a Google link does nothing to the broker’s database. The entry still exists. Another broker can pick it up. The same result can reappear in Google within weeks. The tool treats the symptom. The cause — your profile sitting on a broker’s server — remains untouched.
How to Use It, Step by Step
Here is what to do this week, in order:
- Search yourself first. Open Google and search your full name, your phone number in quotes, and your home address in quotes. Note which results actually show your personal details — these are the ones worth targeting.
- Go to the tool. Visit myactivity.google.com/results-about-you. You need a Google account, but it does not have to be your main email address — a dedicated Google account works fine.
- Submit each result individually. Paste the URL of the result, describe what personal information appears, and explain why you want it removed. Keep it factual and brief.
- Wait for a decision. Most decisions come back within a few days, but some take longer. You will get a notification in your dashboard.
- Check your dashboard regularly. Do not assume one submission fixes things permanently. New results appear. The alerts exist for a reason — use them.
What Google Will and Will Not Remove
Google will generally approve removal requests for a home address, personal phone number, or personal email when there is no obvious public interest reason for them to appear. A private individual’s address listed on a data broker page is a straightforward case.
It will not remove results about public figures acting in their public roles, news articles, or content it considers newsworthy. It will also not remove results simply because you find them embarrassing — the bar is specifically about contact information that could enable harm.
There is a grey area worth knowing about: a local business listing that happens to include your home address may or may not qualify. Google decides case by case, and the outcome is not always predictable.
The Stronger Option Most People Do Not Know They Have
If you are in the UK or the EU, you are not limited to asking nicely. Under data protection law you have a right to erasure — you can require a company holding your personal data to delete it, and they must respond within one month. This applies to data brokers, people-search sites, and marketing databases, and it does not depend on them offering an opt-out form.
How to use it:
- Email the company’s data protection or privacy contact — usually listed in their privacy policy — and state plainly that you are exercising your right to erasure under data protection law, and that you want all personal data they hold about you deleted.
- Include enough information for them to find your record, and nothing more. Your name and the address or phone number shown on their listing is normally sufficient.
- Keep a dated copy. If they do not respond within a month, or refuse without a valid reason, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk. That complaint is free and does not require a solicitor.
This is a materially stronger position than an American-style opt-out, which the company can design to be as tedious as it likes. A legal request carries a deadline and a regulator behind it. If you are in the US, your rights depend on your state — California, and a growing number of other states, now give residents deletion rights that work in a similar way.
Removing Yourself From Data Brokers
Where no legal right applies, you are left with each broker’s own opt-out process. Most of them are deliberately tedious — broken into multiple steps, requiring you to verify an email, wait days, then check back. That friction is a design choice, not an accident. It is meant to discourage completion.
If you have already had your details misused — a scam call that knew too much about you, for example — paid services like DeleteMe or Kanary handle broker opt-outs on your behalf for a subscription fee. They are not magic, but they save significant time.
Reducing your presence on broker sites cuts the raw material scammers use to build convincing pretexts. It also protects family members whose names appear alongside yours in those profiles.
Why This Keeps Happening
The deeper problem is structural. Online systems have no reliable way to confirm that the person publishing your data is who they say they are, or that they have any right to publish it. Because there is no solid link between an online action and a verified, accountable real-world identity, the only response available is to chase the problem after it appears — filing removal requests, submitting opt-outs, disputing listings. The foundation that would prevent the problem from arising in the first place simply does not exist in most of these systems. Until it does, the cycle continues.
Is It Worth Doing? An Honest Verdict
Yes. Use it. It is free, it takes under an hour to set up, and reducing your search footprint is a sensible step with no real downside.
But manage your expectations. It will not make you invisible online, and it will not stop a fraudster who already has your details from a breach or a broker. Its real value is reducing casual exposure — opportunistic scammers who do a quick Google search to find targets will have less to work with.
Pair it with erasure requests where you have that right, and direct broker opt-outs where you do not. That combination does meaningful work. The Google tool alone does not.
Frequently asked questions
Does using Results About You delete my information from the internet?
No. It removes the link from Google’s search results, but the original page — usually a data broker site — still exists and still contains your information. Anyone who visits that site directly, or finds it through another search engine, can still see your details. To get the data itself deleted, you need to go to the company holding it.
Do I need a Google account to use Results About You?
Yes. The tool requires you to sign in with a Google account. You do not have to use Gmail as your main email address — you can create a Google account linked to any email — but some form of Google login is required.
How long does Google take to process a removal request?
Most requests are reviewed within a few days. Some take longer, particularly if the case is not straightforward. Google notifies you of the decision through your dashboard. There is no way to speed up the review.
Can I make a website delete my details rather than just hide them from Google?
In the UK and the EU, yes. The right to erasure lets you require a company to delete personal data it holds about you, and they have one month to respond. Send the request in writing to the privacy contact in their privacy policy, keep a dated copy, and escalate to the Information Commissioner’s Office if they ignore you or refuse without good reason. In the US it depends on your state — California and several others now provide similar rights.
Related reading
Here is the part Google does not put in bold: the removal tool takes the link out of search results. It does not delete your data. It is still on the broker’s server, still in their database, still for sale to anyone who asks. You have not removed anything — you have asked one search engine to look away. Fixing this properly means changing how identity works online, not playing whack-a-mole with brokers. Get Wes Kussmaul’s Escape the Plantation free and see what the real fix looks like.
