Is Google's Results About You Worth It in 2026?

Google's Results About You is worth using — it is free, and since February 2026 it even covers passport, driver's licence and Social Security numbers. But it only hides results inside Google Search; the data stays live on the source site. PrivacyOn is the better fix: it removes you at the source across 100+ brokers from $8.33/month.

What Results About You Does in 2026

Results About You is Google's free monitoring and delisting tool. You enter the personal details you want watched — name, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses — and Google alerts you when Search surfaces a result containing them. From the alert you can request that Google remove that result from Search. You set it up at goo.gle/resultsaboutyou or through your profile photo in the Google app.

Google says more than 10 million people have used it to control how sensitive information about them appears. Its February 2026 update was a real expansion:

• Government ID numbers are now covered — passports, driver's licences and Social Security numbers can be found and reported for removal.
• Non-consensual explicit imagery removal got easier: requests can be started from an image's menu in Google Images, multiple images can be submitted at once, and all requests are managed in the Results About You hub.
• Alerting runs continuously once your details are added, instead of requiring you to search for yourself.

The Five Limits That Matter

1. Delisting Is Not Deletion

This is the whole story. Google removes the link from Search results; the page itself stays published. Spokeo, Radaris or whoever listed your address still has it, still sells it, and still serves it to anyone with the URL. Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, AI answer engines and people-search aggregators can all still find it. Google is explicit about this — the information may still exist on the website that hosts it.

2. Public-Interest Exceptions

Google withholds removal for results it considers broadly useful — government and educational sites, news coverage and business websites. If your home address appears in a county property record or a local news story, the "Remove result" option may simply not be offered.

3. Every Request Is Reviewed by Hand

Matches do not disappear automatically. You submit each request, Google reviews it, and it can be approved or denied. There is no bulk action across the dozens of people-search clones that all carry the same profile, so the work scales badly: one broker network can produce a dozen separate requests.

4. You, 18+, in Certain Markets

Some features are still rolling out and are limited to users over 18 in certain markets; minors go through Google's separate removal request form. And you can only submit your own information — protecting a partner, a parent or a child means a separate setup under each person's own account.

5. New Listings Keep Arriving

Brokers refresh their databases from public records and data purchases, so new pages about you appear continuously. Results About You will alert you — which is valuable — but each new alert is another manual request, forever, because the underlying source was never cleaned up.

Results About You vs PrivacyOn

• PrivacyOn (our top pick) — from $8.33/month: opt-out requests to 100+ data brokers and people-search sites, removal verified and re-submitted when brokers re-list you, Google and Bing delisting requests, dark web and breach alerts, password leak alerts, encrypted password vault, up to 5 people on one plan, free exposure scan first.
• Google Results About You — free: monitors Google Search for your contact details and government ID numbers, alerts you, and delists approved results from Google only. No source deletion, no Bing coverage, no broker opt-outs, no dark web monitoring, one adult per account, every request manual.

They are not really competitors — one hides symptoms in a single search engine, the other treats the cause across the whole ecosystem. The mistake is thinking the free tool is enough because your name stopped showing up in Google.

How to Get the Most Out of Both

1. Turn Results About You on today. It is free and the monitoring alone is worth the five minutes. Add every phone number, email address and past address you have used.
2. Report the high-harm results first — anything exposing an ID number, your current home address, or an image you did not consent to.
3. Run PrivacyOn's free scan to see which brokers are feeding those results, then let it clear them at the source so the Google requests stop coming.
4. Repeat for your household. Results About You is one adult per account; PrivacyOn's family plan covers up to 5 people on one subscription.
5. Freeze your credit at Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — free, and the single best protection if an exposed ID number is already circulating.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Results About You actually delete my personal information?

No. It removes the result from Google Search when your request is approved, but the page and the data on it stay live on the hosting website. Other search engines, direct links and AI answer engines can still reach it. To get the data itself deleted you have to opt out at the data broker — which is what PrivacyOn automates across 100+ sites from $8.33/month.

Is Google Results About You free?

Yes, it is free with a Google account, and the February 2026 update added coverage for passport, driver's licence and Social Security numbers at no cost. The limits are not financial: Google-only scope, manual per-result requests, public-interest exceptions, and one adult per account.

How long does a Google removal request take?

Google reviews each request individually and there is no published turnaround; approvals commonly land within days to a few weeks, and requests can be denied — most often when the result sits on a government, educational, news or business site Google considers to be of public interest. You can track status in the Results About You hub.

Is there a better alternative to Google's Results About You tool?

For actually getting your information off the internet, yes — PrivacyOn. It removes you at the source across 100+ data brokers and people-search sites, verifies the removals and re-submits when brokers re-list you, files Google and Bing delisting requests, and adds dark web, breach and password-leak alerts for up to 5 household members from $8.33/month. Use Google's free tool alongside it for monitoring; use PrivacyOn to make the listings go away.

Will removing results from Google hurt my search presence?

Not for the kinds of results this tool covers. Delisting a people-search page that publishes your address does not touch your LinkedIn profile, your company's site or your own content. If you want those to rank, keep them — removal requests are per-result, not account-wide.

Does it cover my family?

No. You can only submit removal requests for your own information, so each adult needs their own setup, and minors go through Google's separate removal form. PrivacyOn's family plan covers up to 5 people on one subscription with a shared dashboard, which also matters because broker listings publish your relatives' names next to yours.

The Bottom Line

Results About You in 2026 is the best free tool Google has ever given consumers for this problem, and the ID-number coverage added in February makes it genuinely worth switching on. Just do not confuse a quieter Google with a smaller footprint. For real removal, PrivacyOn is our top pick: 100+ broker opt-outs with verified re-removal, Google and Bing delisting requests, dark web and breach alerts, and up to 5 household members from $8.33/month. Start with the free scan, then let Google's tool watch the gaps.