We want to organize the world’s information. But what about malware? What about credit card numbers? There are many tricky issues we think about on a daily basis. Here you’ll find a list of policies organized around particular topic areas. We’re starting with policies related primarily to content removals, but this is a living document and we plan to update over time. We’d love to get your feedback and suggestions.
Web Search removals
Images & Videos
Images & Videos
Web Search removals
There is very little that we remove from search results on a discretionary basis. Aside from spam, the main cases where we might take action are certain types of personal information as defined below and “adult spam.”Personal information:
Upon request, we’ll remove personal information if we believe it could make a user susceptible to specific harm, such as identity theft or financial fraud. This includes sensitive national identification numbers like U.S. Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and images of signatures. It does not include things like a user’s date of birth, address, or telephone number.Users can request to have content removed from Google search results by completing this external form.
In order to determine whether a particular form of identification is considered sensitive, we apply criteria such as the following:
- Is it a government-issued identification number?
- Is it confidential, or is it publicly available information?
- Can it be used for certain common financial transactions?
- Can it be used to obtain more information about an individual?
Adult Spam:
Upon request, we'll remove any page that contains both sexually explicit spam and a user's full name or the full name of their business via this public webmaster tool.Images & Videos
Sometimes, images and videos can be offensive, especially if users haven’t specifically asked for them in their search results. Accordingly, depending on the situation, we may take one of these three actions:- Removing images and videos from search results.
- Not triggering certain search features that show images and videos automatically.
- Filtering objectionable content through SafeSearch.
Removals:
We remove images of personal information like credit card numbers upon request. We remove child pornography. We also remove images and videos for legal reasons, such as valid copyright notifications that meet the requirements of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.Not triggering a feature: images in Universal Search:
When showing images as part of Universal Search, our guiding principle is to not shock users with potentially offensive content. We may remove images or prevent images from showing in queries in the following cases:- Pornographic images. We also process queries that are pornographic or suggestive so they won’t show images as part of Universal Search. This includes queries with multiple meanings, as well as queries that are not offensive but could have offensive results.
- Images depicting bodily functions or bodily fluids.
- Images containing vulgar words.
- Images or references to individuals and organizations if the results may be considered offensive to the individual or organization.
- For example, colloquial references, nicknames, and pejorative references.
- Also, images that lead to landing pages of sites which may be considered offensive to the named individual or organization.
- Images that are graphic. This includes injuries and medical conditions, as well as depictions of death and human body parts.
- Images depicting animal cruelty or violence.
Not triggering a feature: videos in Universal Search:
Follows guidelines similar to images.SafeSearch Filtering:
SafeSearch primarily filters pornographic images. With SafeSearch, we filter:- Images and videos of frontal nudity.
- Images and videos of graphic sex or sexual acts.
- Artistic images and videos that focus on genitals or graphic sex.
- Images and videos of nudity that are medical, scientific or educational.
- For example, images of breastfeeding babies or prostate exams.
- Images and videos where pubic hair is visible but not genitals.
- Images and videos where the focus is on a bare or scantily clad buttocks.
- Artistic or historical images and videos where genitals are not the focus.
- For example, depictions of the Kama Sutra.
- Images and videos depicting sexual fetishes and sexual themes that do not include nudity.
- For example, pop stars dressed in bondage gear.
Source: Google
