What Google can and cannot do
Google can remove a URL from its search results. It cannot delete a file from someone else's website. Google says so plainly in its own help pages: content removed from Google Search can still be on the website that hosts it, and people can still reach it through a direct link, social media or other search engines.
So removal from Google is one of two jobs that run side by side:
- The site: a copyright notice to the site's DMCA or abuse contact, so the copy itself comes down.
- Google: a removal request, so people searching your name stop finding the page, whether or not the site cooperates.
Pick the right route
| Your situation | Google route |
|---|---|
| Content you made and own, on a page that is still live | Copyright removal request (DMCA) |
| Intimate images shared without your consent that you are not being paid for | Personal sexual content removal |
| Fake explicit images of you | Personal sexual content removal (fake sexual content) |
| The page is deleted or changed, but the old result still shows | Refresh Outdated Content tool |
| Your address, phone number or email posted with the leak | Remove private info |
Step by step: Google's copyright removal request
Google's form for search results is the copyright removal request for Google Search. You can also start from Google's Report content for legal reasons page, which routes you to the right form. Google asks for the same core elements that any copyright notice has.
- Your contact information. Say whether you are the copyright owner or someone authorized to act for them.
- A description of your work. Keep it plain and checkable, for example "photo set first published on my subscription page in March 2026", and point to where the authorized original lives, such as your profile page.
- Each URL you want removed. Google asks for each allegedly infringing URL, so paste the exact page addresses, one per line, not just the site name. Leak sites often show the same page on several addresses, such as language versions (fr.noodleek.to, de.noodleek.to). Each one is a separate result, so list them all.
- Two statements. One says you believe in good faith that the use is not authorized by the owner, its agent or the law. The other says, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and that you are the owner or are authorized to act for them. Read them before ticking: they are legal statements.
- Your signature. Google accepts a typed full legal name as an electronic signature.
If you prefer to draft first, our Google DMCA template has the same structure, so you can fill it in offline and paste the parts into the form.
What happens after you submit
- Lumen. Google may share a copy of copyright requests with Lumen, an independent research project at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center. Google says it generally shares the request type, the reported URLs, the country and the date, and that it never shares what you put in the contact information fields, such as your email. In some cases, assessed one by one, it may share the requester's name.
- A notice in search. When a results page is affected by a legal removal, Google may show a notice at the bottom of that page linking to the request published at Lumen.
- Counter-notices. The site owner can file a counter-notification, and Google says it may reinstate the link under the DMCA's counter-notice rules. That is one more reason to keep your proof of ownership.
Google's personal sexual content policy: does it fit content you sold?
Google has a separate policy, Remove personal sexual content from Google Search, that does not depend on copyright. Its help page lists the conditions. In Google's words, all of these must be true:
- The imagery shows you nude, in a sexual act or in an intimate state.
- You did not consent to the imagery or the act, and it was made available online without your consent.
- "You aren't currently being paid to commercialize this content online or elsewhere."
For most creators, that third condition settles it: content you are selling today is a copyright case, not a personal content case. This route is the right one for images you never sold, such as private photos, a recording made without your knowledge, or a fake. Google also covers fabricated sexual content where you are identifiable and it was shared without your consent. For these requests Google says it does its best to find and remove duplicates too. The request starts from Google's content removal form.
If you are not sure which route fits, the copyright route is the dependable one for content you made, because it rests on ownership rather than on consent.
Page already gone? Use Refresh Outdated Content
Sometimes the site takes the page down, but Google still shows the old result or preview for a while. Google's Refresh Outdated Content tool is built for that. According to Google's help page, you can use it when you do not own the page and the page or image no longer exists or has changed significantly. If the page is no longer available and the request is approved, it stops appearing in search results.
Bing, and why it reaches Yahoo and DuckDuckGo
Google requests do not touch other search engines. Bing has its own Report Copyright Infringement form, which asks for the same kind of information: your contact details, the work, where the infringing material is, the two statements and a signature (see Microsoft's infringement notice page).
Bing's form says it covers links appearing in Bing "or provided by Bing via Yahoo", and DuckDuckGo says it largely sources its traditional links from Bing. So a Bing request can reach further than Bing itself, but each search engine still decides about its own results, so a removal in one place is not a removal in all of them.
After you file
- Keep the confirmation emails and your URL list together in your sheet.
- If a request is rejected, the usual fix is detail: exact URLs instead of a site name, and a clearer description of the original.
- New copies need new requests. A removal covers the URLs you listed, not the next page someone uploads.