About a week ago, Google stunned many by saying that they updated their spam report to pass along all information to the site that you enter in the spam report. There was a lot of backlash to that and Google reverted, now saying if there is personally identifying information, it won't process the spam report at all.
Google noted it "futher clarified" to "address feedback we received about the change on using spam reports to take manual action."
It now has a new box that says:
Don't 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 one is issued. Because of this, we won't process your submission if we determine it contains personally identifying information to protect privacy. Not including such information fully ensures your information is safe and prevents your submission from being discarded.
Google is saying:
(1) Don't include personally identifying information.
(2) Google won't process your submission if we determine it contains personally identifying information to protect privacy.
Here is a screenshot:
Spam Report Update: We've got another change on the spam report front! And it's a good one from Google. After they explained they would send spam reports to site owners when a manual action resulted from the spam report, they heard feedback that having any personal identifiable… pic.twitter.com/HqJGo8rASZ
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) April 24, 2026
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