A Google review with your personal phone number or home address

Google's content policy opens its personal information section with “Do not distribute or post personal information without consent.” It defines personal information as “information that applies to a living identifiable person and disclosure could result in risk of harm if it is compromised or misused.” Under harassment it lists doxxing, which Google defines as “the practice of searching for and publishing private or identifying information about a particular individual or organization on the Internet, typically with malicious intent.” Its advertising rules separately bar “Posting email addresses, phone numbers, social media links, or links to other websites in your reviews.”

Google lets businesses post their own contact information, so the phone number and address on your Business Profile are already public. A review that repeats them is a weaker case. The strong case is a detail that was never meant to be public:

• An owner's or employee's personal cell number
• A home address, or directions to someone’s home
• A personal email address or social media account
• A car's plate, a child's school, or where someone parks
• Health or financial details about a named person

1. 01

   Check for a threat

   If the review pairs the details with anything that sounds like harm, contact local police first. The guide to threatening reviews covers that path.

2. 02

   Tell the person

   If the details belong to an employee or a family member, tell them today so they can watch their phone and their door.

3. 03

   Save it privately

   Take a dated screenshot of the whole review and the reviewer profile. Store it, but do not forward or post it anywhere, since that spreads the details further.

4. 04

   Report it

   Report the review from your Business Profile or the Reviews Management Tool and pick the reason that matches personal information.

5. 05

   Look wider

   Check your other reviews, photos on the listing and your social pages for the same details from the same writer.

The safest reply is very short, or none. Never repeat the number or address, never confirm that it is correct, and never say it is wrong either, since both tell readers something. A line such as “We have asked Google to review this post because it contains private information” is enough if you want readers to see you acted.

If the first decision is no policy violation, Google offers a one-time appeal from the Reviews Management Tool. The guides to Google's appeal message and the appeal email explain each stage. Keep your screenshot and the date you reported it, because a review with a private number in it does not become less private with time.

If the same details appear again in a new review after a removal, report the new one the same way and keep both dates in your log. A pattern from one writer is part of the record, and Google lists content posted from multiple accounts by or at the request of one person as fake engagement.

A review that shows the private detail in its own words is the plainest kind of case: the clause is personal information, and the words that meet it are quoted on the case sheet. When the proof sits outside the review, such as showing that a number is a personal line and not the business line, the record is attached and the fee class reflects that work.

The class and fee are on the sheet before anything is filed. A fee is billed only after Google removes the review, and a declined case is filed a second time at the same fee. The free audit reads every low review on your listing, so other posts with private details are found in the same pass.