He experienced a similar scenario after his grandmother died, and he tried to get the password for her e-mail account -- only to give up because of the hassle.
Two-step verification drastically reduces the chances of someone stealing the personal information from your e-mail account because hackers would have to not only get a password and your user name, they would also have to have access to the mobile phone to which the code is sent.
Google recognizes the Web's power to publicize and offers Web masters a simple interface to remove their own pages from its index. (Type "remove" into Google to get started.) Other preventive measures include putting sensitive info behind password-protected walls and attaching so-called robot files to Web sites that tell search engines not to index a particular page or site.
That probably means giving no two services the same username and password, exercising caution when entering personal information and generally behaving as if the entire Internet is out to get you.