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How to Remove Google Maps
to Your Front Door
Do you know that Google may be directing strangers to your front door with a
handy map tied to your home phone number?
I WAS STUNNED to learn that if we type
our home telephone number into Google’s search box, it will reveal not only our
name and residential address, but offer a friendly map link that will take
people right to our front door. I love Google, but this is a gigantic invasion
of privacy as far as I’m concerned. We may want people to find our retail
business by doing a search for our telephone number, but anyone who works at
home doesn't want this kind of visibility.
Privacy is a thing of the past, of course, because many search sites on the
Web (called "information brokers") have personal information on all of us
(including our Social Security number and mother’s maiden name). Only those with
a financial reason for tracking us are likely to pay to get this information,
but if you happen to be dodging a bill collector or have a judgment against you,
you can see how easy it is for you to be found, even if you have an unlisted
telephone number.
Google doesn't make it easy to find the page on its site where you can get
this information removed, but a diligent Internet search yielded the link to
Google's
removal page
for a residential telephone number. Upon completion of the form,
your number should vanish from Google’s database within 24 hours.
When you've completed the form, go back and click all the other links Google
has provided because these places will have your home phone number, too. This
removal process takes a little time, but it's easy to do.
NOTE: On the
Anywho.com site you need to click HELP to get to the removal
page, which in turn instructs you to call a telephone number (from the number
you want removed). This removal process is instant.
Switchboard.com sends an
email with a link you must click to complete the removal process.
I found
ReversePhoneDirectory.com particularly interesting. There is a charge for
listings here, but after checking for my home phone number, I also did a search
on my name. Turned up eleven other Barbara Brabecs across the country. (I've
always known there were other Barbara Brabecs out there—just not that many.
How glad I am that a friend pushed me to register my name as a domain name
several years ago.)
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