Google Provides Details on ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ Requests 

Google said that it had removed more links in Europe to content on Facebook from its search results than from any other website.

Facebook, and Google’s own services, are among the websites to be most affected by Europe’s so-called right to be forgotten, according to figures Google released on Thursday.
As part of an update to its online transparency report, Google said that it had removed more links to content on Facebook from its search results than from any other site, in response to people’s requests to have links to material expunged to protect their privacy.

Two of Google’s services — YouTube and the online forum Google Groups — were also among the products most affected by such requests.
The links are being removed in response to a European privacy ruling that allows people to ask that links to information about themselves be removed from online searches unless a compelling public-interest reason exists for retaining the material.

Since the European Union’s highest court handed down its privacy decision in May, more than 3,300 links to material on Facebook have been removed. That is 1.9 percent of the 169,500 links to websites that Google has removed from its search results, according to a report by the company on Thursday.

The privacy ruling has pitted freedom of speech advocates like Jimmy Wales, a founder of Wikipedia, against consumer advocates who argue that individuals should have the right to seek removal of links to online information about themselves.

Examples given in the report of the requests, which remain anonymous in compliance with European data protection rules, include a Swiss financial services professional who asked that links to 10 web pages outlining his conviction for financial crimes be removed. Google said it had denied the request.

Another request relates to a rape victim in Germany who asked that a link to an article about the crime be removed. Google said it had taken down the link.

Source: NYT- Google Provides Details on ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ Requests

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