Google’s excellent dark web monitoring service will soon be free

Keeping track of your leaked data online is a thankless task, which is why services that monitor the dark web for your info have sprung up. Some are free, like the venerable site Have I Been Pwned, while others are paid services or included with paid software (like antivirus suites).

Even Google has gotten in on the game with dark web monitoring for paid Google One subscribers.

But that’s soon going to change as later this month Google’s dark web reports will become available to all users in eligible countries via the Results About You dashboard.

Previously, free users only saw where their personal contact information appeared in searches online, while Google One subscribers got additional details about personal information (including social security numbers) that might’ve appeared on the dark web.

For more immediate and accurate results, you can manually add to your monitoring profile which details you want explicitly tracked. (Earlier this year, a relative of mine got a warning about the AT&T leak and the reveal of their SSN, despite that info not being part of their profile.)

Don’t like the idea of Google hunting for your info on the dark web? You can delete your monitoring profile via the Edit monitoring profile page. It will stop the reports. To restart, you’ll have to create a new profile.

As always, being alert to data breaches and leaks is a necessary evil for being safe online, so that you can avoid scam attempts. Does that sound exhausting? It is! You can make your life easier by using passkeys (or strong passwords plus two-factor authentication) on all accounts, leaning on a good password manager, and making sure your antivirus software is up to date.