If you’re the type of person to Google your name on occasion, you may have been alarmed if suddenly, one of the search results include your medical records. That sometimes happen when hospitals or doctor offices or even HMOs suddenly suffer data breaches. In case that happens or has happened to you, Google now offers you a way to get them out of the search results. The things is, you will have to request them to do so instead of this automatically happening.
According to Bloomberg, the Google policy page now reflects this, stating that it will remove “confidential, personal medical records of private people” from the search results. The page previously reflected the same for national ID numbers (like for Social Security numbers), credit card and bank account numbers, signature images, “revenge porn”, etc.
The annoying thing is that you yourself will have to request that the records be pulled or else they will remain there supposedly. So if you Google yourself and you discover that somehow your medical records are up there, go to this link, go to the end of the page and choose “Remove information you see on Google search”. There will be some questions you need to answer, and you’ll have to provide a link of course.
We don’t need to explain why having your medical records searchable is dangerous and is an invasion of your privacy. If somehow you also have other information that you want Google to remove from their search results, you can click here.
VIA: SlashGear
