On Thursday, Google announced a new policy that lets users ask for their private, graphic images to be taken down from search results.
The new tool is one of three that Google claims would give people more control over their own material that appears on its well-known search engine.
Danny Sullivan, Google’s public relations representative for search, stated, “It’s just one of the many things we’re trying to do to assist people feel control of their digital experience.”
Sullivan stated that if a user is actively making money off of their explicit photographs, there is an exception to the takedown rules.
In the past, Google gave users the option to request the removal of pornographic photographs posted without their permission.
A new dashboard that tracks when a person’s personal contact information appears in search results was also unveiled by the firm on Thursday. According to the company, this feature will make it simpler for users to keep an eye on and request the removal of personal information regarding them from Google search results. Users will now receive alerts from the tool whenever their contact information appears in new search results.
According to Sullivan, users in the United States will be able to utilize the tool in English, and Google is now working on expanding the feature’s availability to more regions and languages in the near future.
In addition, Google declared that it will start automatically blurring explicit photos that show up in search results for every user worldwide. The corporation previously made this announcement in February in honor of Safer Internet Day.
According to a news release from Google, the SafeSearch blurring function is intended to “protect families from unintentionally encountering explicit imagery on Search.” Explicit photos may contain violent, explicit, or adult material.
“It’s really meant to stay true to our values, which state that we don’t want to surprise or shock people with unexpected information,” Sullivan explained.
Google introduced a feature called “Results about you” last year that lets users ask for their personal contact information—such as phone numbers, home addresses, and email addresses—to be removed from search results.
Over the past few years, Google has been extending the range of material that people can request be removed from search results.
Long-standing user rights allow for the removal of search links pointing to private data, such as credit card numbers and official identification documents, that are used in the context of doxxing—the practice of sharing a person’s private information with third parties for nefarious purposes.
If the material is professional rather than personal, or if it was published on a webpage run by the government or an educational institution, Google may refuse removal requests if they don’t comply with policy standards. The business doesn’t delete material from the source; it just does so from its search results.