{"id":355479,"date":"2025-12-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/es\/?p=404498"},"modified":"2025-12-17T00:17:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T08:17:49","slug":"if-you-fear-the-dark-web-stop-trusting-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/if-you-fear-the-dark-web-stop-trusting-google\/","title":{"rendered":"If you fear the dark web, stop trusting Google"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Google has announced that it will discontinue its dark web reporting tool in February 2026<\/strong>, less than two years after its launch in March 2023. The feature was designed to help users monitor if their personal information appeared on the dark web, an area of the internet where stolen data is often traded.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">If you go out on the dark web, bad luck<\/h2>\n\n\n<p>According to the company, <strong>scans to detect new breaches on the dark web will be suspended on January 15, 2026<\/strong>, and the tool will cease to exist on February 16 of that same year. The decision is based on the feedback received, which indicated that, although the tool provided general information, it did not offer useful and clear steps for users to protect their personal information.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Google has expressed its intention to redirect its efforts towards developing tools that provide more specific and useful steps for online security. <strong>As part of this closure, the company promises to delete all data related to the dark web reporting tool<\/strong> once it is retired, although users have the option to delete their monitoring profile before the closure date.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/dark1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-404500\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>Initially, <strong>the tool helped combat online identity fraud by allowing scans of personal data<\/strong> such as names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers. In July 2024, Google expanded this functionality to include all account holders, not just Google One subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Likewise, <strong>the company advises users to strengthen the privacy and security of their accounts by creating phishing-resistant passwords<\/strong> and applying multifactor authentication (MFA) methods. Additionally, they are suggested to remove their personal information from Google search results through the &#8220;Results about you&#8221; tool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google has announced that it will end its dark web reporting tool in February 2026, less than two years after its launch in March 2023. The feature was designed to help users monitor if their personal information appeared on the dark web, an area of the internet where stolen data is often traded. If you appear on the dark web, tough luck According to the company, scans to detect new breaches on the dark web will be suspended on January 15, 2026, and the tool will cease to exist on the 16th of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9317,"featured_media":355488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[1851,1068],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-355479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dark-web","tag-google"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355479"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355490,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355479\/revisions\/355490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355479"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=355479"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=355479"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=355479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}