As Google admits in an email, crawling the dark web hasn't yielded much benefit. “Feedback indicated that it did not provide useful next steps,” Google said of the service. Here is the full text of the letter.
With other types of notifications about personal data provided by a company, it can do something about it. For example, you can ask Google to remove pages that contain your personal information from searches. However, Google doesn't run anything on the dark web, so all it can do is remind you that your data is being shared in one of the darkest corners of the internet.
The closure will begin on January 15, when Google will stop conducting new checks on user data on the dark web. Historical data will no longer be available from February 16, 2026. Google says it will remove all past reports at this time. However, users can delete their monitoring profile earlier in account settings. This change does not affect any of Google's other privacy reports.
The good news is that the best ways to protect your personal data from moving on the dark web are the same ways that keep you safe on the open web. Google suggests always using two-step verification, and tools like Passkeys and Google Password Checker can ensure you don't accidentally reuse a compromised password. Stay safe there.
