It’s the digital security training team at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), with security news that keeps you, your sources, and your devices safe. If someone shared this newsletter with you, please subscribe here.

Google simplifies removal of search results about you

Over the past few years, Google has rolled out a few tools for users to make requests to remove personal information, such as addresses and phone numbers. Most recently, the company has created more features to request the removal of search results. Learn more.

What you can do

  • Because journalists are so often the target of harassment, it’s important to understand what’s out there about you on Google. Try looking it up with the help of NYT Open’s guide to finding information on yourself. 
  • Next time you’re Googling, try out the feature by clicking the three-dot menu directly next to a Google search result at issue. You can request to “remove result” and then cite a reason why the material should be removed, whether it shows contact or other personally identifiable information, information that can be removed on a legal basis, or if it’s simply outdated.
  • Note that this does not remove any information from the website at issue — this only creates a request that Google removes the search result. The information is still readily accessible to anyone willing to dig in.
  • You can also look at Google’s “Results about you” page to set up proactive monitoring of related search results.
  • Many of the websites housing this kind of personal information are data brokers — companies whose main job is to collect information about you and sell access to aggregated profiles based on whatever commercial and public data they can find. You can manually remove yourself from many data brokers by following instructions listed in journalist Yael Grauer’s Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List. But brokers regularly pull your data in again, so it may be worthwhile to also purchase a data broker opt-out service such as DeleteMe or Optery to expedite this process.

Updates from our team

  • Our listing for our senior digital security trainer role has now closed. We want to thank everyone who shared it with the security nerds in your world. We have a lot of great people who we’ll be talking to, and who we’d be excited to have as future colleagues. More soon.

Our team is always ready to assist journalists with digital security concerns. Reach out here, and stay safe and secure out there.

Best,
Martin

–

Martin Shelton
Deputy Director of Digital Security
Freedom of the Press Foundation