Report: Google Has Removed Over 50 pct of Submissions Under EU's "Right to be Forgotten"

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Report: Google Has Removed Over 50 pct of Submissions Under EU's "Right to be Forgotten"

engine

11:47 am on Jul 25, 2014 (gmt 0)

If the figures are true, that's a great deal of work.

I wonder how many of those links will end up in dispute. This exercise could become very costly, if it's not already.

I can see this going back to the regulators to work out a better way.

Google Inc. has removed tens of thousands of links—possibly more than 100,000—from its European search results from some individuals, according to a person familiar with the matter, illustrating the scale of Europe's nascent "right to be forgotten."

The Mountain View, Calif., company told European privacy regulators during a meeting in Brussels Thursday that it has removed slightly more than 50% of the links that it has so far processed under the new right, the person said.Report: Google Has Removed Over 50 pct of Submissions Under EU's "Right to be Forgotten" [online.wsj.com]

Samizdata

12:38 pm on Jul 25, 2014 (gmt 0)

Some have been demanding that Google end its notifications to websites that have been the subject of right to be forgotten requests, which have in some cases made it possible to identify the person making the request.

So webmasters who are quite legally publishing accurate facts on sites which are not subject to the so-called "right to be forgotten" should not be told that SERPs pointing to their content are being censored by a private company operating a quasi-judicial process against which there is no right of appeal.

Funny thing, progress.

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piatkow

2:14 pm on Jul 25, 2014 (gmt 0)

If Google are just "a private company" then fine, they can drop whoever they like from the SERPS. Their only obligation is to comply with legal restrictions over sites which must not be listed.

Samizdata

3:03 pm on Jul 25, 2014 (gmt 0)

Their only obligation is to comply with legal restrictions over sites which must not be listed.

Sorry, that is just misleading.

Commercial search engines operating in the EU have an obligation to process applications under the so-called "right to be forgotten" and to make a quasi-legal decision whether to grant them or not.

If the search engine decides to grant the application then search queries on the applicant's name are censored.

The pages that mention the name are still indexed and still appear in the SERPs for other queries.

Google's current practise is to notify webmasters who are affected, though there is no right of appeal.

There are no "legal restrictions over sites which must not be listed".

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