MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google on Thursday unveiled new privacy tools, including updated policies allowing individuals to remove “personal, explicit images” from Google Search results.
“We have long had policies that enable you to remove non-consensual explicit imagery from Search,” VP for Trust Danielle Romain shared through the Google blog. “Now, we’re building on these protections to enable people to remove from Search any of their personal, explicit images that they no longer wish to be visible in Search.”
Romain suggested as an example the case of a person who creates and uploads explicit content to a website, but then deletes it. If that content is still being published elsewhere without the person’s approval, they can now request its removal from Search.
The policy, Romain added, “doesn’t apply to content you are currently commercializing.”
Google also announced that it has updated and simplified the forms people can use to request removal of search results linking to websites containing personal information, explicit imagery or other content.
“Of course, removing content from Google Search does not remove it from the web or other search engines, but we hope these changes give you more control over private information appearing in Google Search,” Romain noted.
The announcement has already confused some people in the adult industry, as it does not clarify what would happen if a performer who signed a contract and a release form for explicit content produced by a third party were to change their mind and submit a removal request to Google.
XBIZ has contacted Google for comment.