LöscheuleThe review does not just say that the service was bad, but who is supposedly to blame. With a first name, sometimes a surname, sometimes a description that anyone in a small team can match to a person. It hits someone who cannot defend themselves in public.
What Google means by personal information
Personal information is a separate category in Google’s policies. It covers details that can identify a person without their consent.
A first name alone is usually not enough for Google. A full name, a phone number, an address or a description that clearly identifies a specific person is more likely to be.
Where the line is drawn
The line runs between the service and the person. Saying the staff were unfriendly is an opinion about the visit. Saying a named person is incompetent targets a human being.
If disparagement is added, Harassment also comes into play. Both categories can be named in one report if both apply. But do not invent one that does not apply: a report with three reasons, only one of which holds, is weaker than one with just that one.
What you can do for your team
Report it yourself instead of leaving it to the person affected. The business reports through its profile, and the person concerned does not have to deal with it.
Talk about it within the team. Someone who reads their own name in a one-star review and hears nobody talk about it assumes that everyone has read it and believed it.
Reply publicly without repeating the name. Writing again in the reply who was meant spreads the information instead of removing it.
Key points
Employee names are one of the cases where Google has a clear category of its own. Reports work better the more precisely you point to the person rather than to the criticism.
Does this apply to one of your reviews?
We look at your profile free of charge and tell you which reviews Google is likely to remove under its policies.
These texts explain Google’s policies, not the legal situation. Löscheule is not a legal services provider within the meaning of § 2 RDG (German Legal Services Act). If your case is a legal dispute, you need a lawyer.