The default setting of Couchsurfing profiles is public.
If you do not want to deactivate your account, turning on the "Only allow logged in members to view my profile" privacy setting will prevent your profile from appearing in Google (and other search engine) search results. You can update this in your Privacy Settings.
Deactivating your account will remove your profile from search results.
Once you change privacy settings or deactivate your account, please note that it can take anywhere from 14 to 90 days for your profile to be removed from search results as it takes the Couchsurfing servers and Search Engine servers time to reindex.
Still seeing your profile in Google?
If your name and profile has already been hidden on the Couchsurfing site, Google may have cached an old version of your Couchsurfing profile. It can take up to 90 days for Google to update their cached search results.
We have no way of controlling what content Google keeps or doesn't keep once they have cached a webpage, but there are some steps you can take to request to have this search result removed.
1) Review this Google support article: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663691?hl=en
- Click "Remove a page that was already deleted from a site from search results" to see the steps they recommend.
2) Find the URL of the page that has been Cached by Google and now out of date:
- http://imgur.com/uDJC6aT
- http://imgur.com/jtgIvDr
3) Go to the "Remove outdated content" Google Page to enter the outdated URL: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals?pli=1
Keep in mind that deactivated profiles can be reactivated at any point in the future, regardless of duration. If you aren't looking to take a break and want your profile permanently deleted, please send our support team a request here.
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