Authorized representative

A person permitted to act for the affected person, such as a parent, guardian, lawyer, or another person with actual authorization. Authorization allows submission; it does not establish eligibility.

De-indexing

Broad removal of a URL from a search index. The term is often used loosely. For personal-information cases, use Google’s stated outcome—full removal or query-based/partial removal—because those effects differ.

Delisting

Preventing a URL from appearing in defined search results without deleting the source. A regional data-protection delisting can apply to name-based queries and a particular territorial scope.

Doxxing

In Google’s private-information policy, exposure of personal information in a URL with explicit or implicit threats, calls for others to harm or harass, or a significant aggregation of personal information without a legitimate purpose. This policy definition is narrower than some everyday uses of the word. (Google policy)

A restriction, blocking, or removal requested under an applicable legal basis, such as privacy/data-protection law, defamation, copyright, or a court order. It uses a separate legal workflow and can have country/region-specific scope.

Outdated-content refresh

A request for Google to update stale Search information after the source page or image has changed or disappeared. It is not a request to delete live source content. (Google refresh instructions)

Partial removal

Google’s term for an outcome in which a URL no longer appears for searches containing the affected person’s name or identifier but can appear for other queries. Results about you also calls this query-based removal.

Personal contact information

For the policy and feature covered here: a home address, phone number, or email address associated with the affected person.

Personally identifiable information (PII)

Information that identifies or is closely associated with a person. Google’s removal policy covers specified private PII categories; not every piece of information connected to a person is automatically removable.

Platform removal

Deletion or restriction by the service hosting the content. If the host is a third-party website, this is separate from Google Search action.

Public-interest consideration

A review factor concerning the importance, newsworthiness, source, context, or value of access to information. It is part of Google’s assessment, not an automatic approval or refusal label.

Query-based removal

The Results about you term for preventing a URL from appearing on searches containing the affected person’s name while permitting it to appear for other searches.

Search-result URL

The address of the Google results page where content appears. It differs from the source URL of the page hosting the information.

Sensitive personal identifier

A confidential government ID number or financial account identifier, including examples listed by Google such as Social Security/tax ID, passport, driver’s licence, resident ID, bank-account, or credit-card numbers.

Snippet

The title and descriptive preview displayed for a Search result. A stale snippet can remain temporarily after the source changes.

Source removal

Deletion or editing of the information on the original website. This is the action that removes the material from that page rather than only changing its appearance in Google Search.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator: the exact web address of a page, image, or Search-results page. Google asks for specific content URLs rather than only a website homepage.

Official references

Policy review record

  • Last policy review: 2026-10-17
  • Documentation version: 1.0.0