Google is offering free dark web monitoring. Here's how to use it

Google is now offering free dark web monitoring to all consumer account customers beginning at the end of this month. This offer comes after it has become difficult to monitor the extent your personal information is being spread on the dark web.

The dark web is a mysterious area of the internet. It is famous for criminal activity where massive high-profile data breaches keep rising. Following this, Google is providing a new line of defense for consumers.

*Google will provide free dark web monitoring to Google One subscribers*

Hence, customers will find information such as their address, phone number, or email available in data dumps that hackers sell or make public on the dark web.

Google announced in its update that it will now provide this service for free to all customers as it did before only allowing users who had a Google One subscription.

When the monitoring goes live, (all you have to do), visit the “Results about you” page on Google. Users can now sign up for notifications in cases where their personal information appears in search results.

They can also request content removal in some cases. However, Google cannot remove any content from external websites. Hence, the page feature of Google will now include dark web monitoring which will notify users via email.

Users can also receive notifications through their smartphones. This offer will prove helpful as most people don’t know how to get to the dark web. They probably could not find their stuff there even if they did.

*Google One subscribers will monitor if their data is available on the dark web at the end of July 2024*

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The dark web is an internet’s hidden section that can only be viewed with specialized browsers. Hence, search engines cannot index it. It serves as a marketplace for hackers, who sell personal data obtained from websites, financial services, and healthcare hacks.

Cybercriminals will pay anything from a few to 1000 dollars to get illegal documents or personal information from the dark web. In such circumstances, Google is offering crucial free dark web monitoring for its Google One subscribers at the end of July.

Google has monitored dark web leaks of stolen account information for its subscribers since 2023. However, it can’t remove that content if your data is available on the dark web. But, it will help you to freeze your credit. You can also change your passwords to protect yourself from potential entity theft.