Google has updated its spam reporting documentation to make it clearer that spam reports are not completely confidential and that it is possible that personally identifiable information may be shared with sites that receive a manual action.
Change in response to comments
Google’s changelog indicated that they were updating the spam reporting form based on feedback received on the personal information contained in the spam report shared with spammy sites that receive a manual action (formerly known as penalty).
The update contains a new notice that spam reports containing personal information will not be processed.
The changelog noted:
“Clarify when and why we may take manual action based on spam reports
What: We’ve further clarified when and why we may take manual action based on spam reports.
Why: To address feedback we received regarding the change regarding the use of spam reports to perform manual actions.
Google removed the following from its documentation:
“If we issue a manual action, we send verbatim what you write in the submission report to the site owner to help them understand the context of the manual action. We do not include any other identifying information when we notify the site owner; as long as you avoid including personal information in the open text field, the report remains anonymous.”
The wording above has been replaced by the following:
“Do not include any personally identifying information in your submission. To comply with regulations, we must send the submission text to the site owner to help them understand the context of a manual action, if applicable.
For this reason, we will not process your submission if we determine that it contains personally identifiable information in order to protect confidentiality. Not including this information fully ensures the security of your information and prevents your submission from being rejected.
Actions to move forward
On the one hand, it is good that Google does not take manual action if the report contains personal information. This means that if you submit spam reports to Google, do not name your site, your company name, your personal name, or any other name that you do not want the affected spammer to know.
Read the updated documentation here:
Report spam, phishing or malware
Learn more about Google’s spam reporting tool: Google just made it easy for SEOs to eliminate spam sites
Featured image by Shutterstock/andre_dechapelle
