Google has announced it is expanding its privacy tools for removal requests and SafeSearch, so users can take more control over their personal information.

Previously, Google released a “Results About You” tool which enabled users to request for the removal of search results that contain personal information such as phone numbers, home addresses, or emails.

With the new tool, which is set to roll out in the coming days, Google will alert users if web results contain personal information, allowing them to then request the removal of these results from Google’s search results.

Google says the tool will further update users when new results from the web appear in search results.

The tool is currently available in the US, and in English, but Google is looking to expand it to other locations.

Danielle Romain, VP of Trust at Google did make clear that successful removal requests would only remove information from search results, and not from the actual internet.

Further, removal requests appear to remain at the same regulations as before, meaning that only personal information will be removed, rather than professional information.

Explicit Images

Google will also be rolling out a new SafeSearch mechanism globally, which will automatically blur all explicit imagery, including adult or graphic violent content.

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Users can adjust this setting and turn it off at any time – unless an administrator has locked the SafeSearch setting.

Further, Google says it is making it easier to remove non-consensual explicit imagery from Search, as well as removing personal explicit images they no longer wish to be visible in Search.

The company says it has “updated and simplified” the forms used to submit removal requests of personal explicit images.

Easier Said than Done?

Google has had to update their removal policies before – just in 2022, the EU court ruled that Google must remove personal information if individuals can prove the information is inaccurate.

Further, while these changes have been in the works for a while and allow users to request for the removal of highly personal information, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is currently facing a class-action lawsuit in the US over alleged data-scraping to fuel its artificial intelligence systems.