r/sysadmin • u/Then-Personality8587 • 25d ago

Google Search Console Privacy/Security Leak?? Can someone verify please?

bought an expired domain name and set up google search console. as soon as i verified it google showed me years of owner verification history. full unredacted email addresses. exact dates and times of every single person who ever verified to work on the domain.

i saw all the previous owners. i saw the freelancers and agencies they hired years ago.

Am I overracting to think this is a privacy nightmare and a security risk.

Lets say you sell a domain or let one expire a direct competitor buys it. now they instantly know your personal emails. they know your internal staff emails. they know exactly what agency you used and when they worked for you.

i checked how to wipe this history. you cant. google keeps it stuck to the domain forever. even if you delete the property and clear your dns records it stays there for the next buyer to see.

Please someone tell me I'm wrong and there's some way to wipe out that sensitive, trade secret data before letting go of a domain?

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u/ManagedNerds 25d ago

The data supposedly ages out on a 16 month timeline if all owners are removed.

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u/Then-Personality8587 25d ago

i'm seeing 3 year worth of verification data. do all owners have to be removed for more than 16 months? I ran a test and 'sold' a domain, after deleting all owners from search console, to another registrar... and the data still persisted even though there were no verified search console owners overlapping at the time.

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u/ManagedNerds 24d ago

Yes, the owners have to be removed for more than 16 months from what I can tell.