The search giant admitted to have thousands of requests from individuals, but refused to reveal how many search histories or web pages have been tweaked. The company has started to remove search links to content in the European Union under the “right to be forgotten” ruling. The latest court decision obliges Google not to point to links containing “outdated or irrelevant” information about people.
Now searches performed on Google’s services in the EU which contain peoples’ names will include a section at the bottom saying “Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe”. Google will also provide a link to a page which explains the ruling by the European Court of Justice delivered last month.
At the same time, searches made on Google.com, the US-based service, don’t include this warning, as the court ruling only applies within Europe. The search engine refused to reveal how many peoples’ search histories have been tweaked or how many links have been affected. Google revealed a month ago that the company had received thousands of requests from individuals to alter its search results within days after the court ruling.
Since then Google was trying to figure out how to process people’s complaints and has finally set up an online form where individuals can ask to remove links. The company also pointed out that you can appeal to data protection authorities if you disagree with Google’s decision.
The decision of the European Court of Justice followed a court case launched in Spain by a lawyer. The plaintiff argued that under the European Data Protection directive, Google has to behave like any company carrying out data processing and remove information about an individual which became “outdated, wrong or irrelevant”. In the lawyer’s case, this applied to a Spanish newspaper’s online report dated 1998 telling about financial problems the lawyer had had.
According to the court ruling, the newspaper’s report itself was protected under freedom of expression, but Google’s search results to it weren’t, because the search engine was a “data processor”. People were quick to catch the opportunity to change what the online world knows about them and sent tons of letters to Google to remove search results about all evil they’ve ever done in their life.
Now searches performed on Google’s services in the EU which contain peoples’ names will include a section at the bottom saying “Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe”. Google will also provide a link to a page which explains the ruling by the European Court of Justice delivered last month.
At the same time, searches made on Google.com, the US-based service, don’t include this warning, as the court ruling only applies within Europe. The search engine refused to reveal how many peoples’ search histories have been tweaked or how many links have been affected. Google revealed a month ago that the company had received thousands of requests from individuals to alter its search results within days after the court ruling.
Since then Google was trying to figure out how to process people’s complaints and has finally set up an online form where individuals can ask to remove links. The company also pointed out that you can appeal to data protection authorities if you disagree with Google’s decision.
The decision of the European Court of Justice followed a court case launched in Spain by a lawyer. The plaintiff argued that under the European Data Protection directive, Google has to behave like any company carrying out data processing and remove information about an individual which became “outdated, wrong or irrelevant”. In the lawyer’s case, this applied to a Spanish newspaper’s online report dated 1998 telling about financial problems the lawyer had had.
According to the court ruling, the newspaper’s report itself was protected under freedom of expression, but Google’s search results to it weren’t, because the search engine was a “data processor”. People were quick to catch the opportunity to change what the online world knows about them and sent tons of letters to Google to remove search results about all evil they’ve ever done in their life.
nice article
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