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During the initial setup, Google will also let you know if it doesn’t find any personal information about you in search. GOOGLE CAN DENY YOUR REQUEST Google has a standard process for
determining whether to comply with your request. It checks whether the information you’re asking to remove resides on the host page. It makes sure you’re the person whose information would
be removed or you have a close relationship to the person. And Google may turn down your request if it determines that leaving the information intact is in the “public interest,” perhaps
because of its newsworthiness or because it’s part of a public record on a government site. You can’t ask Google to remove content just because you don’t like what it says, such as a post
from someone who calls you a lousy plumber. “We can’t assess, ‘Was this true or not true?’ and make those kind of judgments,” says Danny Sullivan, public liaison for Google Search. “By
default, we try to show stuff that we think is generally reliable or useful information.” Google will reach a decision on your removal request in a week or so, he says. If you’re denied,
Google will provide an explanation. Even if Google agrees to remove your information from its search results, the material may show up in other search engines’ results, on social media or on
websites. Competitor Microsoft Bing, a distant second to Google, has an online Report a Concern to Bing page, where you can request the removal of certain information from its search
engine, though it’s not a seamless process. Click the FEEDBACK link at the bottom of the page, then click the REPORT A CONCERN link in the window that appears. Select your concern from the
checklist and follow further instructions for reporting your particular issue. YOU CAN PAY OTHERS TO REMOVE YOUR INFORMATION For a fee, companies including DeleteMe, Kanary and OneRep will
wipe out some of your personal data floating across cyberspace. What Google is doing “is one important step, hopefully of many, that’s going to give consumers and citizens more rights and
more controls over their data that’s stored at third parties,” says Rob Shavell, chief executive of DeleteMe. He says 11 percent of searches are related to people. DeleteMe compiles a list
of third-party “data brokers” that peddle all sorts of personal information about you, including the make and model of your car, photos of your home and its worth, your children’s ages,
mother’s maiden name, political affiliation and more. You can visit the DeleteMe site to access free guides to help you request the removal of information on your own. Since the process is
lengthy and painstaking, many people instead pay $129 a year to let DeleteMe handle the job on their behalf. Kanary charges $144 a year for similar services and OneRep charges about $100.
“Can we delete you from the internet? Absolutely not,” Shavell says. “It is an ongoing service because your information inevitably comes back when you do things like sign up or for an
application or register for something and you don’t carefully read where they’re sharing that data.” _This story, originally published May 11, 2022, has been updated to reflect upgrades to
Google's search removal tool._