google search engine

blossom30

Hi Does anyone here know how to delete personal information from the google search engine? Brother in law was in a road traffic accident some time back and the third party admitted liability and settled out of court. Imagine his horror when he googles his name or address it comes up with the details of this for all to see. He did not at anytime give anyone permission to do this. The information is of no relevance to anyone but him ,it is just that he has an uncommon name and it is a concern that someone can do this without his permission.Any advice will greatly be appreciated.shrewdal

espresso

shrewdal wrote:

Hi Does anyone here know how to delete personal information from the google search engine?......

Do you mean locally on your PC?

BillScarab

Not sure what you mean, google is a search engine that finds info displayed on websites. If you put you Brother in Law's name into google the results will be from different websites. He would have to speak to the owners of whatever websites hold the data to try and get it removed. I'm not sure how successful he will be if it's a factual report though.

marleyboy

If its already out there on the Web, theres not much he can do about it, other than ask the Site Engine to remove it, even if they could, chances are its already spread the web globally. But as you say he has an unusual name, the chances of someone searching for him and his accident are pretty slim, as there would be no gain out of it.

johnmc

Do the google yourself and find out which web sites have the information.

Chances are it's a local newspaper, in which case a polite request to remove the identifying details will probably work. As he wasn't convicted of any offence (I guess) then it's not in the public interest.

But it is interesting what you can dig up online with voters lists etc.

blossom30

BillScarab wrote:

Not sure what you mean, google is a search engine that finds info displayed on websites. If you put you Brother in Law's name into google the results will be from different websites. He would have to speak to the owners of whatever websites hold the data to try and get it removed. I'm not sure how successful he will be if it's a factual report though.

Hi Billscarab, thanks for your response I had a look at the page and it is a court roll call, however as this case did not proceed , I don't see how they can take someones' personal details as if they have committed some crime and display them for all to see on the internet. He has e-mailed them to ask them to remove any links they have. The case was settled out of court for a derisory offer so it wasn't newspaper material either. Thanks again shrewdal

Moneymaker

You can email Google and ask them to remove the link (and any cached pages) from their database. I have done this myself. However, bear in mind that Google is only one of dozens of search engines that people might use.