Google offers 'right to be forgotten' form to remove personal data
- 10 years ago
Google has taken its first steps to meet a European court ruling that people can have links about themselves removed from internet search results if requested.
EU citizens can now fill in a “right to be forgotten” form online explaining why the link is “irrelevant, outdated, or otherwise inappropriate.” If approved, it will be erased although the pages will stay.
Kevin Hauzeur from the Belgian Pirate Party said the measures do not go far enough.
“Firstly, the Internet user may feel tricked because Google asks for a photo ID card to validate the request, which is a problem with regards to privacy rights.” Hauzeur said, adding “also the user will have to repeat the procedure with other websites and search engines. And finally, Google insists that it won’t be the one ruling on the requests, but It will be the national regulatory bodies.”
Google will make the decision on whether to delete the links but any disagreements will be overseen by national data protection agencies. There will be 28 different agencies across the EU.
Google said it has already received 12,000 requests from across Europe within the first 24 hours of launching.
Yahoo, which also operates a search engine in Europe, has previously said it’s “carefully reviewing” this to assess the impact for its business and users.
Microsoft, which has the Bing search engine, has declined to comment on the ruling.
EU citizens can now fill in a “right to be forgotten” form online explaining why the link is “irrelevant, outdated, or otherwise inappropriate.” If approved, it will be erased although the pages will stay.
Kevin Hauzeur from the Belgian Pirate Party said the measures do not go far enough.
“Firstly, the Internet user may feel tricked because Google asks for a photo ID card to validate the request, which is a problem with regards to privacy rights.” Hauzeur said, adding “also the user will have to repeat the procedure with other websites and search engines. And finally, Google insists that it won’t be the one ruling on the requests, but It will be the national regulatory bodies.”
Google will make the decision on whether to delete the links but any disagreements will be overseen by national data protection agencies. There will be 28 different agencies across the EU.
Google said it has already received 12,000 requests from across Europe within the first 24 hours of launching.
Yahoo, which also operates a search engine in Europe, has previously said it’s “carefully reviewing” this to assess the impact for its business and users.
Microsoft, which has the Bing search engine, has declined to comment on the ruling.