Google to end dark web leak alerts in February 2026
Google will discontinue its Dark Web Report feature, ending a service that alerted users when their personal information appeared on dark web forums and marketplaces. Google said it is retiring the tool after user feedback showed the reports did not provide “helpful next steps.”
The shutdown will happen in stages. Google will stop running new scans on January 15, 2026, and previously available results will be removed on February 16, 2026, when Google says it will also delete stored report data from its systems. Users who prefer to clean up sooner can delete their monitoring profile from the Dark Web Report settings before those dates.
The feature launched in March 2023 as a benefit for Google One subscribers and expanded to broader access in 2024. It typically surfaced a list of partially redacted data points tied to a user, but it could not remove that information from the dark web.
Google is steering users toward tools it says offer more actionable protection, including Security Checkup, 2-Step Verification, passkeys, Google Password Manager, and Password Checkup, as well as “Results about you” for removing exposed personal info from Search results when applicable.
