How to report a Google review containing personal information

Google’s rules for Maps content do not allow people to share someone else’s personal information without consent. If a review on your Business Profile exposes private details about you, a staff member or a customer, there is a specific policy ground for reporting it — and, in serious cases, a legal one.

Written by Konrad Weber · Reviewed by Andrew Foster, Review Removal Specialist · Updated 2026-10-11

What Google treats as personal information

Google’s prohibited and restricted content policy for Maps lists personal information as its own category: content that shares someone’s personal details without their consent is not allowed. Separately, the harassment category covers doxxing — publishing private information to target or intimidate someone. Together these two categories are the main policy basis for reporting a review that reveals private details.

In practice, the details that most clearly fall within the policy include:

• A private mobile number, personal email address or home address of an owner or employee
• Health information about an identifiable person — for example, a review that names another patient and describes their treatment
• Financial details, account numbers, or the contents of private documents
• Information about someone’s family members, children or personal relationships unrelated to the business
• Photos or descriptions that make it easy to locate a person outside work

What usually does not count

Google’s policy expressly allows businesses to display their own contact details, and it allows professionals to be named when they do business under their own name. That matters, because many business owners assume a review that names a staff member is automatically a privacy breach. It is usually not.

For example, imagine a customer writes: “Sarah at the front desk was rude and kept me waiting.” Naming an employee in the context of the service they provided is ordinary feedback, and Google is unlikely to remove it on privacy grounds. If the same review went on to give Sarah’s surname and home suburb, mention her medical condition or suggest people “find her on Facebook”, the position changes — the review is now sharing personal details that have nothing to do with the service experience.

Names alone are therefore rarely enough. What tips a review over the line is private detail, especially detail that could be used to contact, locate or embarrass someone away from the business.

How to report it through Google

1. Capture the evidence first. Take a full screenshot showing the review text, reviewer name, date and your business name, and copy the review’s share link. Personal information is sometimes edited out by the reviewer later, and you want a record of what was published.
2. Report from your Business Profile or the Reviews Management Tool. Google’s help page explains both routes. In the Reviews Management Tool you choose your business, select “Report a new review for removal”, and pick the reason that best fits — for a review exposing private details, choose the option closest to personal information, harassment or privacy rather than a generic category.
3. Track the status. The Reviews Management Tool shows whether a decision is pending, whether Google found no violation, or whether an appeal has been escalated.
4. Appeal once if needed. If Google decides there is no violation, you can lodge a one-time appeal through the same tool, with an explanation of exactly which words in the review are personal information and whose they are.

If the person whose details were exposed is an employee, it is good practice to tell them what has happened and what you are doing about it. Do not repeat the private details in your public reply to the review — responding with “please remove my staff member’s address” draws more attention to the address.

When the legal route becomes relevant

Google also runs a separate legal removal process for content that may breach the law, through its “Report content for legal reasons” form. That route asks you to identify the exact URL, explain what is unlawful and why, and it is assessed against the law rather than against Google’s content policy alone.

Several areas of Australian law can be relevant to private information in a review. A review that combines private details with false allegations may raise defamation issues. Since 10 June 2025, individuals have also been able to rely on a statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy in Schedule 2 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). It applies to conduct after that date, protects natural persons rather than companies, and has strict elements and short time limits, so it is a matter for legal advice rather than a standard business remedy. Our page on privacy and online reviews explains the broader framework.

If a customer’s information appears in a review

Occasionally the personal information in a review belongs to another customer, not your team. A reviewer might name another client, or quote what they overheard about someone’s appointment. Report the review on the same grounds. Health service providers in particular should be careful here: dental and medical practices are covered by the Privacy Act regardless of turnover, and the same caution applies when replying — never confirm or add to what a reviewer has said about a patient.

What a strong report includes

• The exact words or image in the review that constitute personal information
• Whose information it is, and that the person did not consent to it being published
• Why it goes beyond describing the service experience
• Any risk created by the disclosure — for example, the employee has received unwanted contact since
• The date the review was posted and, if relevant, when the details were added by an edit

Keep the report factual and short. Google’s reviewers assess a high volume of complaints, and a clear statement of which policy is breached is more useful than a long account of the dispute with the customer.

If you are unsure whether a review crosses the line, G-DEFENCE can look at it as part of a free assessment and tell you honestly whether there is a realistic policy or legal ground — and if there is not, we will say so. You can request an assessment using the form on this page.

Sources

• Google Maps – Prohibited and restricted content policy
• Google Business Profile Help – Manage customer reviews (reporting and appeals)
• Google Legal Help – Report content for legal reasons
• OAIC – Statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy
• OAIC – Rights and responsibilities under the Privacy Act (who is covered)
• Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) – Federal Register of Legislation