How to Remove Your Name From Google Search Results (2026 Guide)

Google does not create the pages showing your personal information — data brokers do. Remove the source first. Then Google de-indexes the empty page automatically.

Common mistake: Many people start with Google removal requests and skip the data brokers. This works temporarily — but Google re-indexes the page when it re-crawls, and the result comes back. The correct order: brokers first, Google second.

Why your name appears in Google search results

Most unwanted personal information in Google results comes from data broker profiles — Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, FastPeopleSearch, and hundreds of similar sites. These sites aggregate your information from public records (voter registrations, property deeds, court records) and publish it on publicly-indexable pages. Google crawls those pages and includes them in search results.

Other sources include old forum posts, news articles, social media profiles, and court records. The removal process differs for each.

The correct removal order

Remove yourself from data brokers first

Submit opt-out requests to the people-search sites whose pages appear in your Google results. Most brokers process requests within 24–72 hours. After removal, the page at that URL either becomes blank or shows a 404 error. When Google next crawls the URL (usually 2–6 weeks), it removes the result from its index automatically.

How to opt out of people-search sites →

Use Google's Results About You tool

Visit myactivity.google.com/results-about-you (logged in to your Google account). The tool monitors search results for pages containing your phone number, home address, or email and alerts you. You can request removal of any pages it surfaces. This is also how to remove your address from Google Maps results.

Submit a manual Google removal request

For pages not surfaced by the Results About You tool, use the Google Search removal request form (search "Google remove outdated content" or "Google personal information removal request"). You will need the exact URL of the page you want removed and a brief explanation of why it qualifies for removal (home address, phone number, etc.).

Handle news articles and court records separately

News articles and court records are rarely removable from Google — they are considered matters of public record. Google will only remove them in narrow circumstances (outdated content from inactive sites, doxxing content, etc.). Your realistic option for these is reputation management: publish positive content that outranks the negative results.

What Google will and won't remove

Google will remove:

✓Home address in search results
✓Phone number in search results
✓Email address in search results
✓Bank account or credit card numbers
✓Pages that no longer exist (404)
✓Explicit sexual images published without consent
✓Content that violates doxxing policies

Google will NOT remove:

✗News articles about you
✗Court records (public record)
✗Social media posts you made
✗Business registration records
✗Content you find embarrassing but that is not private data
✗Pages that still exist and are publicly accessible

FAQ

Can you ask Google to remove your personal information?

Yes. Google's Results About You tool (myactivity.google.com/results-about-you) lets you request removal of pages showing your home address, phone number, or email. You can also submit a removal request via Google Search's Remove Outdated Content tool. Neither tool deletes the underlying source page — it only removes the Google index entry.

How long does it take Google to remove search results?

Google typically processes removal requests within a few days to a few weeks. The Results About You tool shows request status in the dashboard. If the underlying page still exists, the removal from Google results is temporary — Google may re-index it when it re-crawls the page.

Why does removing from Google not fully solve the problem?

Google indexes existing web pages — it does not create them. If your data is on a broker's website, removing it from Google search only affects Google. The broker page still exists and can be found through Bing, DuckDuckGo, or direct searches. The correct order is: remove from brokers first, then remove from Google, so the underlying page disappears.

Start with the brokers — Google follows

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Start removing from brokers →