If someone posts your private phone number, home address, medical records, or intimate images without your consent, Australia doesn't have a GDPR-style general "right to be forgotten" — that's specifically a European mechanism. But you're not without options. Two different pathways exist here, and it matters which one you use for which problem.
Path 1: Google's own removal policy (a company policy, not a legal right)
Google maintains global policies for removing certain categories of sensitive personal information from search results — this is Google choosing to act on its own terms, not something Australian law compels them to do. Categories Google will generally consider for removal include:
- Highly sensitive identifiers: credit card numbers, bank account details, handwritten signatures, or government ID numbers like your Tax File Number or Medicare number
- Doxxing content: pages that expose your personal contact details with clear intent to enable harassment
- Non-consensual intimate imagery appearing in search results
Since this is a discretionary policy, Google's own analysts assess each request against their published criteria, and outcomes aren't guaranteed the way a legal order would be.
Path 2: The eSafety Commissioner (a real legal power, specifically for image-based abuse and cyberbullying)
For non-consensual intimate imagery specifically, and for serious cyberbullying, Australia's eSafety Commissioner has genuine statutory takedown powers under the Online Safety Act 2021 — this is not discretionary the way Google's policy is. The Commissioner can issue formal removal notices with real legal consequences for non-compliance, making it the stronger route specifically for these categories, in addition to (not instead of) a Google removal request.
Building your Google removal request
Locate the exact URLs of the search results showing the information, and the exact URLs of any associated images. Take clear screenshots showing the personal data is publicly exposed.
Submitting and what happens next
Use Google's official personal information removal request form, citing the specific risk category. If approved, the URLs are removed from search results — but the underlying page or image usually still exists on the original website unless you separately get that site to take it down, or the eSafety Commissioner compels it for image-based abuse specifically.