Search your own name and your phone number or home address shows up on the third result — a random directory site, an old forum post, a people-search aggregator you've never heard of. Google didn't create that page, but it's the reason a stranger can find it in three clicks. Google now gives you a direct way to cut that visibility, and it's worth understanding exactly what it does and doesn't fix before you rely on it.
What the tool actually is
Results About You is a free privacy dashboard built into your Google Account. It scans Google Search for pages containing your personal contact information and lets you request removal directly, with ongoing monitoring that alerts you if new matches appear later.
What it can remove
The tool can request removal of results containing your phone number, home address, email address, and — following a 2026 update — government-issued ID numbers (like Social Security numbers), bank and credit card details, and images of handwritten signatures or ID documents. It also covers non-consensual explicit images, with an easier removal path than before.
The most important thing to understand: this removes the link, not the information itself
This is worth being completely direct about, because it changes how much you should rely on this tool alone: removing a result through Results About You takes it out of Google's search index — it does not delete the information from the website that published it. The page still exists, and it's still accessible if someone visits that site directly, finds it through another search engine, or reaches it via a link from somewhere else. Google is explicit about this in its own support documentation.
There's also a narrower "partial removal" outcome that happens sometimes: the page might stop appearing when someone searches your name specifically, but could still surface for a different search query. And Google won't remove results at all if it decides the page serves a legitimate public interest — this commonly applies to government websites, news organizations, and similar sources, even if your contact information happens to appear on them.
For information to actually disappear from the internet — not just from Google's index — you generally need to also contact the website owner directly and ask them to remove or edit the source page. Google provides guidance on how to do this as part of the same removal request process.
How to actually use it
- Go to Results About You (accessible from your Google Account or directly at myactivity.google.com/results-about-you) while signed in.
- Enter the personal information you want Google to monitor for — your name, phone number, home address, and email.
- Google scans its search index, which typically takes a few hours, and shows any matching results under "Results found."
- Review each result, then submit a removal request for anything that qualifies — Google typically reviews requests within a few days and emails you the outcome.
- Turn on notifications so you're alerted automatically if new pages matching your information get indexed later.
What this doesn't cover — the bigger picture
Most of what ends up exposing a home address or phone number in search results in the first place comes from data broker and people-search sites (Whitepages, Spokeo, BeenVerified, and similar). Removing the Google search link is a fast, useful first step, but the underlying listing on those sites will keep resurfacing in search results over time unless you also opt out directly with each broker — a separate, ongoing process worth treating as ordinary digital housekeeping rather than a one-time fix.