If you’ve ever asked, “How do I remove public records from Google?” our guide will help you navigate the mugshot removal process.
Almost every internet user knows that you can find nearly anything under the sun on Google. The search engine covers a wide array of information across the web about any person, thing, place, activity, movie, series, site, and anything else.
There is no question that this has massively helped netizens today. Different people, professionals, brands, and businesses have benefitted from the top-notch search engine.
Certain businesses known as data brokers have also benefited greatly from this. Google has made it much easier for these brokers to access public records from the Internet.
Before discussing Google’s involvement in the data brokerage industry and how public records can be removed from the Internet, let’s first define what a public record is.
What Makes A Public Record Public?
It is easy to think that a public record is simply one anyone can see. While this is true, these public records are considered public because they were filed and recorded by local, state, and federal public agencies.
Thus, to be specific, a public record comprises information recorded or documented by a public agency by the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act).
This specific law was implemented to offer transparency to American citizens regarding almost any public transaction or piece of information.
On the local level, the county clerk’s office is the designated office to handle government agencies’ public records. The county clerk manages these public and original records and documents.
Types Of Publicly Available Records
Based on the law, some several documents and records could actually be considered public records. These include the following.
- Court Records
- Arrest Records
- Important Statistics
- Evaluation Reports
- Regulations and Laws
- Financial Records About Political Campaigns
- Financial Data Of Public Institutions
- Professional Licenses
- Marriage Licenses
- Property Ownership Records
- Birth and Death Records
Any citizen is legally allowed to access information from public records, which has been helpful not just on an individual level but also on a business level.
Data Brokers Take Information From Publicly Available Records
Certain businesses, known as data brokers, focus on collecting and disseminating public records. Their functions largely depend on access to information from public records.
What Is A Data Broker?
As its name suggests, a data or information broker operates on data. This firm collects, processes, cleans, and structures the data to be released to third-party services.
The data brokerage industry may be unfamiliar to the average person. However, this industry is thriving.
You probably don’t know it, but you may have previously stumbled upon, heard of, or used a data broker site. Some of the most popular “people search” sites are data brokers.
As of 2019, it was reported that there were over 4,000 information brokers worldwide. That is quite a massive number, and there is a high chance that the number has increased today.
What Are People Search Sites?
People search sites are information brokers with widely used services. This is because they offer personal details of people.
These people search websites typically list the following personal information:
- Age
- Home Address and Location
- Date of Birth
- Telephone Number
- Phone Number
- Social Media Profiles & Account Details
- Relatives
These are just some of the personal information that can be found on people search sites. Without this personal information, these people’s search websites would not exist.
Examples of People Search Sites
Some of the people search websites include:
- Truthfinder
- Fast People Search
- Fast Background Check
- Peek You
- Intelius
- Spokeo
While there are still other types of information brokers (such as those that focus on people with criminal charges) and websites, people search sites are considered popular brokers.
What Publicly Available Records Does A Data Broker Look Into?
Information brokers source data from public records (and other private sources, such as social media sites). They mostly browse records from the Internet.
Their public record sources include the following:
- Birth and Death Records
- Marriage and Divorce Records
- Vehicle Registration Records
- Voter Registration Records
- Census Data Records
- Professional Licenses
- Property Ownership Records
- Bankruptcy Records
- Arrest Records
- Mugshots
- Court Records
These are all public records that information brokers scrape to offer their services. They can find a person’s address, phone number, and even Social Security number through these records.
After collecting, cleaning, and processing this data, they include the information in their databases and use it for business purposes.
What Does A Data Broker Do With Information From These Records?
Depending on the nature of its services, a data broker may use personal information from public records for a variety of purposes, including the following:
- Marketing
- Advertising
- Fraud Detection
- Loan Offers
- People Search Websites
Simply stated, a data broker may use the private details to ramp up marketing and advertising efforts, trace fraud, inform relevant parties about credit background, and assist people in finding each other through people search websites.
Google’s Role In The Data Brokerage Industry
An information broker must access public records to make and offer reports about people. Considering this, Google has played a significant role in making personal information from public records more accessible to data brokers. But more than that, you may wonder if Google could pass as a data broker.
Is Google A Data Broker?
It is true that Google collects your private and sensitive information and offers it to third-party services for whatever purpose. That being said, it is safe to say that this platform is indeed a data broker. Several prominent digital privacy groups claim that both Google and Facebook are considered information brokers. They may even count as people’s search sites.
How Has The Platform’s Search Engines Empowered Other People Search Sites?
Because of the platform’s great search engines, millions can easily access different kinds of information. The same is true for data brokers. By simply typing a relevant keyword and browsing through Google search results, data brokers can find public records from which they can scrape personal information. This could work both positively and negatively.
Protect Yourself In The Online Space
While the data broker industry has helped to some extent, it has also posed risks to your privacy online. You should not ignore this.
The risks posed by the data brokerage industry
In people’s search sites, specifically, searching for someone and getting to know a stranger is straightforward. It also means, though, that if you can search about someone through these search engines, the chances are that people can find out about you as well. This is the case if you are specifically listed on the site.
When people search sites publish sensitive information from records from the internet, it means that they are more exposed online. Anyone can find out about you. This could tarnish your online reputation, affect your digital footprint, and make your private details easily accessed online.
This may be a risk, but that is not all there is to it. Such an occurrence actually allows cybercrime to flourish.
Identity Theft: A Threat You Shouldn’t Take For Granted
If some random internet user can search for you, it is safe to conclude that cybercriminals can also discover you. These criminals may even go even further and use your personal information to perform illegal activities. This type of criminal activity is known as identity theft.
Because anybody can learn things about you, you are more vulnerable to becoming a victim of cybercrime. Things could go very badly when your private details fall into the wrong hands. You may even be a victim of cybercrime or impersonation.
To protect your identity and your personal information from future privacy breaches, you can submit a removal request to Google. They must remove sensitive information about you. You can even process the removal of public records.
How To Remove A Public Record Of Your Personal Info From Google
Google announced last April that the public can now request to have personal information removed from their search results. To do so, simply follow these steps.
STEP 1: Go to Google’s support page.
STEP 2: Browse through the page until you see the “Start Removal Request” option. Click it when you see it.
STEP 3: The platform will immediately ask if you contacted the website’s owners about your desire to opt-out. This is not required, so you can easily check the “No, I prefer not to” option if you haven’t done so.
STEP 4: Google will prompt you to tell them what you want them to remove from the internet. Choose the “Personal Info, Like ID Numbers And Private Documents” option.
STEP 5: Specify what personal information you provide actually appears in the web results. You can indicate whether it’s your driver’s license number, real phone number, home address, social security number, or other data.
STEP 6: Tick the “Live” checkbox.
Note: This procedure only removes information from live websites; the process is different for cached sites.
STEP 7: Google will then ask if your removal request is related to doxxing, which refers to “contact information being shared with malicious, threatening, or harassing intent.” Specify if this is the case.
STEP 8: Provide your details, including your complete name, email address, and country.
Note: Google only allows you to submit requests for yourself or someone you represent.
STEP 9: Submit links to the information. The submission can reach up to 1,000 different sources across the Internet. Google will also ask for the specific URL and for you to specify where the results appear.
Once you submit your request, Google will proceed with removing public records of your personal information.
Considering that Google is full of billions of information pieces, offering a specific way for internet users to opt out of the platform was a good step.
Let Private Information Stay Private
Even if there is a law in place that allows this information to be accessed, you shouldn’t take chances. Other people don’t need to know your phone number, date of birth, social account details, home address, and social security number. All of this information should be kept private.
Hence, if your private information can be seen by the public, it is time to take action to solve the problem. Follow the opt-out and removal steps illustrated above. Content removal agencies may be helpful in helping you remove information. Some of them even offer a free consultation. Just ensure you don’t sit still and wait for the potential risks to become a reality.
Need help getting your personal information off the web? Contact us now! Call
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