Google’s Free Dark Web Report Is Dead: Here Are the Best Dark Web Monitoring Alternatives of 2026

Google One’s dark web report was a free service that scanned the dark web for your information and reported back where it was found. The service itself wasn’t very robust and didn’t assist with data removal. Ultimately, Google decided to discontinue the free dark web monitoring service as of January 15, 2026. 

We prefer the best data removal services to Google One’s dark web report. A data removal service can automate the process, provide additional monitoring features, and even help protect against identity theft. We tested Google One’s dark web report ourselves to let you know what worked and where we found Google lacking, so you can choose the right Google dark web report alternative.

Best Google dark web report alternatives

If you’re looking for an effective alternative to Google's free dark web scan, you’ll want protection that includes dark web monitoring, data broker removal, and identity theft protection. Removing your data from data brokers across the web can help reduce spam, scams, phishing, and even identity theft.

DeleteMe, Incogni, and Aura all offer data broker removal services with continuous identity monitoring to make sure your information stays private. But only Aura kicks it up a notch by including continuous dark web monitoring, identity theft protection, and remediation services. 

Traditional data removal services like DeleteMe and Incogni work to prevent identity theft by focusing on removing your exposed data from the internet. For that reason, they offer more automatic removal requests and up to unlimited custom removals. Unfortunately, data removal services alone don't typically offer continuous dark web monitoring. 

However, an identity security suite like Aura includes data removal as a part of a broader protection strategy that includes dark web monitoring for robust identity theft prevention.

How to remove your Google dark web report data now

Google alerted users to the discontinuation of the free dark web report service, noting that user data will be automatically removed as of February 16, 2026. However, Google allows users the option to have their personal information deleted from their monitoring profile sooner. Here's how. 

1. On your computer, Android, or iOS device, navigate to dark web report. 

2. Click or tap Edit monitoring profile, which is located under Results with your info. 

3. Navigate to the bottom of the page to delete your Google dark web monitoring profile. Select Delete monitoring profile and then click the trash can icon.

What Google recommends as an alternative to dark web report

As an alternative, Google suggests using the free results about you feature through Google Search. This free online privacy tool helps users find out which personal information is publicly available via Google Search and provides insights on how to request data removal. 

However, the search is limited to your house address, phone number, and email address.

While this free tool is useful, it's not a real alternative solution in our experience. Data brokers collect a lot of information, including your known relatives, criminal history, previous addresses, maiden names, credit report history, sensitive health data, internet search history, online purchases, social media profiles, and much more. 

It's more effective to use a free privacy scan from a legit data broker removal service like Incogni, since it will be much more comprehensive and actionable.

Why Google’s free dark web scan wasn't good enough

Google’s free tool didn't offer comprehensive dark web scanning or identity monitoring services. 

Don’t get us wrong. The dark web report returned results for some personal information, like your Social Security number, if that data is found on the dark web. It also offered options for protecting that data. These are the hallmarks of a good, basic data monitoring service.

But more robust data monitoring services include automated tools that will take you directly to websites with compromised credentials. 

From there, here's what complete monitoring services can do:

• Help remove your data from data brokers and people search sites
• Continually monitor the regular and dark web for your sensitive information
• Issue recurring removal requests and suppression requests
• Monitor your credit report for unusual activities or loan requests
• Safeguard your financial accounts and flag suspicious transactions
• Offer specialty monitoring, such as home titles, USPS address changes, social media accounts, and more
• Provide identity theft insurance in the event you experience financial losses due to identity theft
• Include advanced security software for secure online browsing
• Block unwanted spam calls, suspicious texts, and scam emails
• Bundle nice-to-have alternative identifications, like email and phone aliases, for online identity protection

Our experience testing Google One’s dark web report

We didn’t give Google extensive personal information about us, mainly because we know Google has had privacy issues before, but we allowed the basic information to be monitored. 

It returned a report indicating that our name, phone number, email address, passwords, usernames, and gender were found on the dark web. A drop-down menu revealed our address was also found.

Unfortunately, when we tried to click on these categories to do more, the only assistance we received was the suggested next steps. There weren’t any links to help us easily remediate our information.

This was frustrating because it meant we’d have to do way more work to take down all these records manually.

What we liked and didn't like about Google One Dark Web Report

Bottom line

Google One’s dark web report was a good jumping-off point if you’re new to dark web scanning, but it certainly didn't offer comprehensive protection or actionable next steps. Reducing the amount of personal information floating around the dark web and the internet in general can protect you from spam, scams, phishing, fraud, and even identity theft. In the age of digital information exchange, protecting your identity is more important than ever.

Free dark web monitoring usually isn’t very robust. Ultimately, you’ll either spend a lot of time trying to fix the issues it reports, or you’ll end up getting one of the best data removal services to help automate the process and make your life easier. We suggest the latter. 

Incogni automatic data removal services can include up to unlimited custom data removals, meaning you can request your information be removed from thousands of data broker sites. Removing your data is a proactive way to prevent your personal information from being leaked in data breaches (which is usually how your SSN ends up on the dark web in the first place). 

But services like Aura offer data removal as part of a comprehensive identity theft protection suite. That means, in addition to automatic data removal and continuous dark web monitoring, you'll get comprehensive identity, financial, and credit monitoring services. 

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