Unwanted data on Google
 

I just typed in my nom d'écran (no, not this one!) into the Google search engine and found personal information that I would prefer not to be there.

How can I get Google to delete those data, please?

If you are referring to posts you have made on PPRuNe, you can delete them yourself, or you can send a message to Admin (Contact Us link) making the request.

If it is for archived material, or stuff elsewhere on t'interweb, here's a start:

Remove a page or site from Google's search results - Webmaster Tools Help

SD

You can amuse yourself faffing around for hours or weeks if you like, but the simple answer is "you can't, if you don't want something to be publicly visible forever then don't post it to the internet in the first place".

Thank you, Gertude, for that illuminating information. Has anyone got any - how shall I phrase this - more constructive suggestions?

It depends on where the data is - i.e. on what site. If you don't have access to that site or forum, then it is a little hard.

What I would do is find out where it is (that's easy, click on the link with the information) then either delete the information as the user originally associated with this content OR contact the site admin.

The refer to the link already posted.

Google as such doesnt hold the data, its all held on many different sites that you must have visited and put the data on. Once its out there, its there for ever. My name is out there, and when the link is clicked on to see the content it some times comes up as reference no longer valid.

Chuch - as 'Avt' says - it is life on the internet! Google merely SEARCHES that for your details which are already there. Bing/Ask/AOL search/whatever will do the same. G is just VERY efficient! It helps having a common name like mine (Fred Smith) since most folk don't go as far as page 44 on Google.

It is like putting a 'for sale' postcard in a shop window with your phone number and then complaining when someone rings you up a year later. Of course, if you Face-thingy/Twit-thingy/Friends Re-thingy etc you are done for - and serves you right:)

Nonsense.

I've seen some of my details on Google crawled sites that I've never been to and are simply either information leaks by muppets or marketing lists that I've given no permission to.


Nonsense.

Contact the underlying website owner (i.e. NOT Google), be polite, ask nicely. Once they have removed your details, you will find your details will disappear from Google upon their next crawl of the web.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your prompt and instructive messages. Armed with your advice I can now crack the problem!

Best wishes to all.

Quoting BOAC:

So true. I find my name appearing in Gurgle from all sorts of past associations - like minutes of meetings I've attended, past offices held in sporting organisations, occasional articles I've authored for a club magazine long before the internet was really in existence, and other stuff like this. Some of this information is hopelessly out of date, but it's still there.

If you were to Google my amateur radio callsign, the listing would run for many pages, because any activity there is reported almost immediately on numerous sites set up exactly for that purpose.

Fact is that once the third party makes the information with one's name in it available on the web it's really in the public domain, the web crawlers will find it in time, and for the most part there's nothing one can really do to change this.

The internet is a veritable mine of information and we have very little control over it's capability to make discoveries about us, and then to share them with anyone who knows enough about us (just the name) to make the inquiry. Your address and phone number can be found with the greatest of ease - at least here in Oz - and quite a large amount of one's personal information may be available much more easily than we perhaps imagined.

Of course, then there's Farcebook, but that is another matter altogether....

Regards,
F_O_R