Overview:
Privacy Bee works hard to reduce your online exposure - but not everything on the internet can be removed. This article explains what Privacy Bee can and cannot remove, so you know exactly what to expect.
What Privacy Bee Can Remove
Privacy Bee submits removal requests for your personal information from:
- Data Broker and People Search Sites - Sites that collect and sell your name, address, phone number, email, and other personal details.
- Search engine results - When your personal information appears in Google, Bing, Yahoo, or Yandex results through people search sites or their affiliates.
- Marketing databases - Lists used by marketers and telemarketers that contain your contact information.
- Custom sites - Sites outside our standard database that you identify and submit through a Custom Removal Request.
Why Is My Information Still Showing in Google or Bing After Removal?
When Privacy Bee successfully removes your personal information from a Data Broker or People Search Site, the information may still appear in Google or Bing search results.
This can happen because search engines maintain their own indexes that may not immediately reflect changes to the original website.
What Can I Do?
1. Check the original website.
Open the website linked in the search result to see whether your personal information is still visible.
- If your information is no longer there: The search engine may still display outdated information while it updates its index.
- If your information is still visible: Contact Privacy Bee so our Privacy Concierge team can review the exposure and determine whether additional removal action is appropriate.
2. Request an update from the search engine.
If your information has already been removed from the original website but still appears in search results, you can request an update using:
- Google: Refresh Outdated Content tool
- Bing: Content Removal tool
These tools are intended for pages that have been removed or changed at the source. Google and Bing review requests and decide whether to update their search results. Their tools may not always process a request successfully.
Can Privacy Bee Remove My Information Directly From Search Engines?
Privacy Bee primarily addresses personal information at its original source, such as Data Brokers and People Search Sites.
Removing information from the source helps reduce its availability through search engines. However, Privacy Bee cannot control search engines’ indexing processes or guarantee that a search result will be removed.
What Privacy Bee Cannot Remove
Some information is outside the scope of what Privacy Bee can address. This includes:
Legally public records - Government and legally published records, such as court cases, arrest records, marriage licenses, property records, and voter registration, are considered public information. These are not always eligible for removal, and Privacy Bee cannot guarantee their removal.
Some websites may remove or restrict court records only under specific legal circumstances, such as if the case was:
- Expunged
- Dismissed
- Sealed
- A not-guilty verdict was issued
In many cases, the website will require official documentation to confirm one of these outcomes.
Social media content - Privacy Bee does not remove content from your own social media accounts or manage your social media privacy settings. Most platforms require you to log in directly and follow their own removal process. Privacy Bee does not ask for access to your social media accounts or login credentials.
Adult content - Privacy Bee can request the deletion of your personal information and opt you out of the sale of your data where legally permitted. However, Privacy Bee cannot formally remove legal adult content that you or others have published.
Dark web data - While Privacy Bee monitors the dark web for your information and alerts you when it’s found, actually removing data from the dark web is rarely possible. Once data is shared on the dark web, it is often copied, redistributed, and hosted anonymously. The most effective response is to reduce your exposure on the surface web so less data is available to leak in the first place.
What is the Difference Between Professional and Personal Information?
Some professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, and government officials, need certain information to remain publicly accessible - such as a business email address or professional name. Privacy Bee focuses on removing your personal information, your home address, personal phone number, and other identifying details you wouldn’t want publicly associated with you.