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Keep redacted information out of Google Search
When publishing documents and images on the web, you may unintentionally publish information
beyond what is immediately visible to the human eye. In particular, information that you might
not see, or that was intended to be redacted, might be included in some document formats and
visible to search engines.
Because search engines index public material on the web, including images, content that is
not completely redacted can potentially be findable in search engines. Assistive technologies
like screen readers can make this seemingly "hidden" content more easily accessible, and
common image understanding techniques like optical character recognition (OCR) similarly make
it possible to search for this content.
Even though putting text in a tiny font, using a font color that's the same as the background
the text is on, or covering text with an image may make something invisible to the human eye,
these methods don't actually redact material in a way that prevents search engines from
indexing it and making it findable.
Similarly, some document types include information in various ways that aren't immediately
visible. They might include the document's change history, allowing users to see text that has
been redacted or altered. They might retain the full versions of images that contain cropped
or redacted information. There might also be metadata that's included in a file, which is not
immediately visible, that may list the names of people who accessed or edited the file.
All of this information can remain even when a document is exported or converted from one
format to another. If you need to remove information from a file, it's critical that the
information is removed completely from the file before that file is made public.
Here are some best practices for how to appropriately redact information from documents that
you don't want to be indexed and made discoverable via Google Search.
Edit and export images before embedding them
Google Search lists images that it finds across the web, both those that are on web pages or
those that are embedded into various document formats. Embedded images are sometimes edited
using only the containing document's editing tools. This can cause this redaction to fail when
an image is indexed apart from the document. That is why it's best to edit images before
embedding them into a document, not after. In particular:
Crop out unwanted information from images before embedding them into documents. Some
document editing tools (such as word processors or slide creation tools) will maintain any
uncropped images that you use in the public version of the document, so be sure to review
the tool's documentation thoroughly.
Completely remove or obscure any text or other non-public parts of the image, as OCR systems
may turn any image text seen into searchable text.
Remove any undesired metadata.
After following the suggestions in this document, export or save the updated images as non-vector or
flattened image file formats such as PNG or WEBP. This prevents those parts of the images from
being inadvertently included in a public document.
Edit or remove unwanted text before moving to a public file format
Before you generate the public document, remove any text that you don't want displayed in the
final version of the file. Move to a public format that does not keep your previous change
history. Here are more specific tips:
Use proper document redacting tools if a file needs to have information redacted. For
example, avoid placing black rectangles over text as a redaction method, as this can result
in the text still being included in the public document.
Double-check the document metadata in the public file.
Consider information in the URL or file name itself. Even if a part of a website is
blocked by robots.txt, the
URLs may be indexed in search (without their content). Use hashes in URL parameters instead
of email addresses or names.
Consider using authentication to limit access to the redacted content. Serve the resulting
login page with a
noindexrobotsmeta tag
to block indexing.
What to do if unredacted or improperly redacted documents are indexed in Search
Remove the live document from the website or location where you published it.
Use the Removals tool
for the verified site to remove the documents in question from Search. Use a URL prefix if
you need to remove many documents. For verified sites, a URL removal generally takes less
than a day. This prevents the document in question from appearing for any searches for
redacted content.
Host the properly redacted document under a different URL. This makes sure that any newly
indexed version is of the new document, and not an older version of the document (since
recrawling of URLs and updating them in a search index can take a bit of time). Update any
links to those documents.
Contact any other site that may also be hosting the improperly redacted documents and ask
them to take them down as well. Ask them to use the Removals tool in their Search Console
account, or you can use the
Outdated Content tool
to ask Google's systems to update the search results.
Allow the URL removal requests to expire (this happens after the URLs were either updated in
the Google Search index, or after about 6 months).
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-02-04 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eAvoid unintentionally publishing sensitive information hidden within documents or images, as search engines can index this data.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eEmploy proper redaction techniques like cropping, obscuring, or removing sensitive content before publishing files, rather than relying on visual concealment methods.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eEdit images and remove unwanted text before embedding them into documents to prevent unintended exposure of redacted content.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUse the Google Search Console's removal tools if improperly redacted documents are indexed to quickly remove them from search results.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["To keep information out of Google Search, properly redact documents before publishing. Edit images before embedding them, cropping unwanted parts, removing text, and deleting metadata. Remove unwanted text from documents, using redaction tools instead of merely covering text. Export images in non-vector formats. For indexed, improperly redacted content, remove the live document, use Google Search Console's Removals tool, host a properly redacted version under a new URL, and contact other hosts to remove the documents.\n"],null,["# Keep Redacted Information out of Google | Google Search Central\n\nKeep redacted information out of Google Search\n==============================================\n\n\nWhen publishing documents and images on the web, you may unintentionally publish information\nbeyond what is immediately visible to the human eye. In particular, information that you might\nnot see, or that was intended to be redacted, might be included in some document formats and\nvisible to search engines.\n\nBecause search engines index public material on the web, including images, content that is\nnot completely redacted can potentially be findable in search engines. Assistive technologies\nlike screen readers can make this seemingly \"hidden\" content more easily accessible, and\ncommon image understanding techniques like optical character recognition (OCR) similarly make\nit possible to search for this content.\n\nEven though putting text in a tiny font, using a font color that's the same as the background\nthe text is on, or covering text with an image may make something invisible to the human eye,\nthese methods don't actually redact material in a way that prevents search engines from\nindexing it and making it findable.\n\n\nSimilarly, some document types include information in various ways that aren't immediately\nvisible. They might include the document's change history, allowing users to see text that has\nbeen redacted or altered. They might retain the full versions of images that contain cropped\nor redacted information. There might also be metadata that's included in a file, which is not\nimmediately visible, that may list the names of people who accessed or edited the file.\n\n\nAll of this information can remain even when a document is exported or converted from one\nformat to another. If you need to remove information from a file, it's critical that the\ninformation is removed completely from the file before that file is made public.\n\n\nHere are some best practices for how to appropriately redact information from documents that\nyou don't want to be indexed and made discoverable via Google Search.\n\nEdit and export images before embedding them\n--------------------------------------------\n\n\nGoogle Search lists images that it finds across the web, both those that are on web pages or\nthose that are embedded into various document formats. Embedded images are sometimes edited\nusing only the containing document's editing tools. This can cause this redaction to fail when\nan image is indexed apart from the document. That is why it's best to edit images before\nembedding them into a document, not after. In particular:\n\n- Crop out unwanted information from images before embedding them into documents. Some document editing tools (such as word processors or slide creation tools) will maintain any uncropped images that you use in the public version of the document, so be sure to review the tool's documentation thoroughly.\n- Completely remove or obscure any text or other non-public parts of the image, as OCR systems may turn any image text seen into searchable text.\n- Remove any undesired metadata.\n\n\nAfter following the suggestions in this document, export or save the updated images as non-vector or\nflattened image file formats such as PNG or WEBP. This prevents those parts of the images from\nbeing inadvertently included in a public document.\n\nEdit or remove unwanted text before moving to a public file format\n------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nBefore you generate the public document, remove any text that you don't want displayed in the\nfinal version of the file. Move to a public format that does not keep your previous change\nhistory. Here are more specific tips:\n\n- Use proper document redacting tools if a file needs to have information redacted. For example, avoid placing black rectangles over text as a redaction method, as this can result in the text still being included in the public document.\n- Double-check the document metadata in the public file.\n- Follow the [document redaction best practices](https://www.google.com/search?q=document+redaction+best+practices) for the format that you are using (PDF, image, etc).\n- Consider information in the URL or file name itself. Even if a part of a website is [blocked by robots.txt](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro), the URLs may be indexed in search (without their content). Use hashes in URL parameters instead of email addresses or names.\n- Consider using authentication to limit access to the redacted content. Serve the resulting login page with a [`noindex` robots `meta` tag](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/block-indexing) to block indexing.\n- When publishing, make sure that the website is [verified in Google Search Console](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9008080). This allows quick removal action, if needed.\n\nWhat to do if unredacted or improperly redacted documents are indexed in Search\n-------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n1. Remove the live document from the website or location where you published it.\n2. Use the [Removals tool](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9689846) for the verified site to remove the documents in question from Search. Use a URL prefix if you need to remove many documents. For verified sites, a URL removal generally takes less than a day. This prevents the document in question from appearing for any searches for redacted content.\n3. Host the properly redacted document under a different URL. This makes sure that any newly indexed version is of the new document, and not an older version of the document (since recrawling of URLs and updating them in a search index can take a bit of time). Update any links to those documents.\n4. Contact any other site that may also be hosting the improperly redacted documents and ask them to take them down as well. Ask them to use the Removals tool in their Search Console account, or you can use the [Outdated Content tool](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7041154) to ask Google's systems to update the search results.\n5. Allow the URL removal requests to expire (this happens after the URLs were either updated in the Google Search index, or after about 6 months)."]]