Help me *extract* myself from Google’s search results
December 2, 2018 5:12 PM   Subscribe

I have been lately removing personal information from the internet, and on one particular site I thought I had successfully used Google’s Remove Outdated Content Tool. However, the site- unfortunately one with my address plastered on it- still comes up with a search of my name, albeit now with my name scrubbed from the search result, site description, and the website from whence it came.

It now appears there in the same way as if someone had searched for the address directly. Just a random address, which happens to be mine, located on the first page of a google search for my name. Correct me if I’m wrong but this appears to be an issue with Google, and outdated cache, and not with the site itself, which appears to have removed all of my identifying info. I apologize if I am speaking in circles, or not clearly, but this is driving me a bit batty.
posted by teekat to Computers & Internet (2 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: I found this info on google groups, which seems to align with my current predicament:

“The first stage in result removal is "Removed" status on the request, and the disappearance of the snippet and cache on the search result. The remainder of the result will not be removed until Googlebot re-crawls the web page. There is no definite time frame for recrawl, but it could take a week or two.”

That describes what I am seeing, so hopefully it will take care of itself.
posted by teekat at 9:44 PM on December 2, 2018 [1 favorite]


Have you tried contacting the website owner direct to ask them to amend or remove the offending material?

If you do that and they either refuse or don't respond, you could (as a last resort) issue a DMCA takedown. You can see more details of what that is and how it works here: https://www.dmca.com/faq/What-is-a-DMCA-Takedown
posted by hughbell at 4:56 AM on December 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


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