Google's 'Results About You' Tool Scans Search Results for Personal Data

The tool is reachable from the Google app on an Android phone by tapping the profile icon and selecting "Results about you," or through the separate Results About You website. The writer, who said the feature had gone unnoticed for four years, set it up on an Android device.

According to the account, users begin by tapping "Get started" and entering their name, along with any nickname people might use when searching for them. They then list the details they want monitored; the writer added a home address, a phone number and three email addresses that were not meant to be publicly available. Multiple entries can be added to each field. Notification options can be toggled between email and the Google app, and users must tick a box confirming that the information they submitted belongs to them before saving.

Google says the information is encrypted and used only for monitoring, testing and improving the monitoring system, the account states. The first scan is completed within six hours, and the tool runs periodic scans afterward. In the writer's case, the initial scan turned up no results. When matches are found, Google sends a notification, and the user can submit a removal request; if the request meets the company's removal criteria, the result is removed for all users, not only for the person who filed it.

The monitored categories include phone numbers, email addresses and home addresses, and Google has added the ability to scan ID and Social Security numbers depending on the user's region, according to Android Authority.

The writer described the setup as worthwhile but not sufficient on its own. Having had personal data exposed in past breaches, the writer also relies on the dark web monitoring built into Google Password Manager, which tracks whether online account information surfaces on the dark web, and on the HaveIBeenPwned website, where new-leak notifications are enabled by email. According to the account, HaveIBeenPwned did not flag a recent breach involving a local app that had been retired, which exposed a password and an email address online. The writer cited that gap as a reason to run several monitoring tools at once rather than depending on any single service.

The account closes by recommending that users who have not yet configured Results About You do so, on the grounds that it reduces the need to track the appearance of one's own data manually.

Editor's Summary

Google's Results About You feature, available through the Google app on Android and on a dedicated website, checks search results for personal data including phone numbers, email addresses and home addresses and allows removal requests that, if approved, apply to all users. An Android Authority account of setting up the tool describes a first scan completed within six hours and periodic scans afterward, alongside Google's statement that submitted information is encrypted and used only for monitoring and system improvement. The writer pairs the feature with Google Password Manager's dark web monitoring and HaveIBeenPwned, noting that the latter did not flag one recent breach.