# How do you get your address out of Google? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 21, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251 "2008-04-21T17:19:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/1 "2008-04-21T17:19:05Z")
I need help pretty urgently with this. My mother is a pretty high profile attorney working in family law (a very emotionally volatile field) and has kept her home address out of phone books and other listing services for her entire career so far. Now suddenly when you Google her name, you get her business name, her business phone number, and _her home address_. She’s freaking out. I’ve found this: [http://www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html](http://www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html) but that removes your phone listing, which she doesn’t want to do. She just wants her listing to actually be her business address (or no address) and not her home address. She still wants people to be able to find her business phone number. What can she do? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/2 "2008-04-21T17:42:06Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] What can she do? [/QUOTE] Move. It is nearly impossible to remove information from Google. Just kidding… maybe. If her info is coming up on someone’s website, [it is possible to have the offending page removed from the Google index](http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=61062&topic=13511), but this requires cooperation from the owner of that website. In this case, it’s sounding like the third party that Google uses simply found her information from the phone company - possibly her telephone listing is not unpublished this time around? If that’s the case, the fault lies with the phone company for leaving information out for Google (and other search engines!) to find. I found a phone number for Google - (650) 253-0000 - might be worth calling and explaining the situation. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/3 "2008-04-21T18:11:15Z")
Her phone number is always listed with just her first initial and her maiden name and no address. It isn’t a website that is listing it, it’s Google’s own thing. She doesn’t know where it got the info. I will pass on the phone number to her–thanks. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/4 "2008-04-21T18:24:20Z")
Slight hijack… A friend and neighbor with a large ranch up in Humboldt has had issues with trespassing, catalyzed by various private roads and trails being marked and viewable on Google Maps. There is an old footbridge that caught one particular guy’s attention, and he decided to trace a trail from the foot bridge out to the county road where he was either dropped off by friends or hitch-hiked. He proceeded to trespass like a motherf\*cker, and set up a campsite down by the creek near the bridge, and no one knew he was there until a few weeks later when he had hiked back out to the road and caught a ride to the nearest pay phone, where he called is Mom and begged her to ship him a tarp for the rain. That was the first opportunity anyone had to inform him that he was trespassing and that he needed to leave, but it opened up our neighbors’ eyes to how technology that they don’t even know existed could directly impact their lives. These folks are dear and close friends of the family, and they live as if from another time: off the grid with a couple of generators, self-sustained with ranching sheep, beef, vegetable gardens, fruit orchards, and timber. They have a lot of (very rugged) land from which they scrape a hard living, and it chaps my ass to think of them being subject to lawsuits because some dumbass decides to trespass and gets himself killed on their property. Putting an impenetrable wall around their property would easily cost millions of dollars that they don’t have, and they have no feasible way for the 5 of them to patrol their property via horseback to keep the trespassers out. I fear that this is but a taste of what they will have to deal with, on top of all of the struggles to keep their family land intact and not sell it off to timber companies or in chunks for homesteading. It is a beautiful piece of land, and I have no doubt that people will increasingly try to enjoy it without permission. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/5 "2008-04-21T18:58:50Z")
Here’s a question-- how do you even FIND phone numbers/addresses from Google? I always end up going to Switchboard or Zabasearch to find that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/6 "2008-04-21T19:29:49Z")
[QUOTE=toadspittle] Here’s a question-- how do you even FIND phone numbers/addresses from Google? I always end up going to Switchboard or Zabasearch to find that stuff. [/QUOTE] Even if you find a phone humber for Google, it is highly unlikely that you’ll be able to reach anyone other than a call-screening intermediary person there. I used to be a contractor for one of Google’s online projects, and Google was responsible for issuing my monthly paychecks. When I had a problem, I tried to report it by telephone. I got the royal brushoff and was essentially told that nobody would take the time to talk to me. It took me more than a month to get the matter straightened out. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/7 "2008-04-21T19:48:28Z")
[QUOTE=pinkfreud] Even if you find a phone humber for Google, it is highly unlikely that you’ll be able to reach anyone other than a call-screening intermediary person there. I used to be a contractor for one of Google’s online projects, and Google was responsible for issuing my monthly paychecks. When I had a problem, I tried to report it by telephone. I got the royal brushoff and was essentially told that nobody would take the time to talk to me. It took me more than a month to get the matter straightened out. [/QUOTE] That isn’t actually the question that **toadspittle** was asking, but it does give me the opportunity to say that, while I am in love with most of Google’s products, I bought a subscription to Google Business Search, and it had a bug in it. Me and a developer tried and tried and tried, and got one response through the help forum, which was a C&P from the help file that didn’t address the bug. Their customer service sucks shit. To the OP - give us more info - I’ve never seen personal (as opposed to business) details expressed by Google from its own servers. How are they being presented? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/8 "2008-04-21T20:07:29Z")
There is a basic problem here. Under U.S. law, your home address is considered public information. It is not a violation of your privacy to publish your address. It’s going to take some massive legal and political movements to prevent this sort of thing from happening. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/9 "2008-04-21T20:14:19Z")
It is coming up above the search results as a [maps.google.com](http://maps.google.com) thing with her business name, business phone number, home address, and a map to her house. **acsenray** the problem here is that she doesn’t understand how this is even happening. Her house and home phone number are in her _maiden name_ and so they shouldn’t come up for a search for her legal name (also her business name)… If someone knows her maiden name, then yeah, that is public info. But connecting the names isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/10 "2008-04-21T20:16:19Z")
To clarify: she owns the house under her maiden name, she owns the business under her married name [though she’s been divorced for 35 years] ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/11 "2008-04-21T20:49:27Z")
Try entering the address into Google’s search box, in quotation marks (e.g. “123 Fake Street”). If Google got the address from some site elsewhere on the web, it should turn up there, and you would have a better idea where this info came from. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/12 "2008-04-21T20:58:32Z")
Does this page help? [http://www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html](http://www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html) ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2008, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/13 "2008-04-21T21:00:23Z")
No. I mentioned that page and why it doesn’t help in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![MissMossie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@MissMossie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissMossie)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/14 "2008-04-22T00:23:16Z")
Here are directions on how to [remove your business](http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=22043) from Google maps. It seems like minor tweaking of those directions might get the job done. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2008, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-get-your-address-out-of-google/446251/15 "2008-04-22T01:28:46Z")
Cool, I will send her that link and see if it helps. thanks 🙂