Google started removing results in its European websites Thursday under the “right to be forgotten,” a rule established by the European Union’s top court that grants individuals the right to request removal of search results of their own names.
Google has begun sending emails Thursday to notify people that their requested results were taken down.
European Union wanted Google to state when a result is removed upon request, but Google refused to and only added a notification at the bottom that says, “Some results may be removed under data protection law in Europe.” EU said not stating the result was removed by “right to be forgotten” might undermine the purpose of the new right.
Google engineers had been working on updating the company’s system to make the removal go smoothly. The company has also hired a new team specifically for processing the removal requests. Although only a small number of requests had gone through, Google is dedicated to process as many requests as possible and as soon as possible.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the first-ever result that was taken down was a 1988 newspaper advertisement about Mario Costeja González’s long-term debt. The “right to be forgotten” was actually inspired by Costeja Gonzalez’s initial request of removing the advertisement in 2010.
The European Court of Justice’s decision of granting the “right to be forgotten” caused some debate between free-speech and privacy activists. Free-speech activists said that removing certain search results is taking away people’s right of knowing; privacy activists supported the new right and said the free-speech concern was nothing to worry about because only name searched results will be removed.
Photo: File
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