Google flooded with ;right to be forgotten; requests

USPA News - Google is being bombarded with requests to be "forgotten" after Europe`s top court ruled that the Internet search giant is responsible for the removal of search results that are deemed to point to "personal or irrelevant" data, a company spokesperson said on Saturday. A Google spokesperson said it had already received more than 12,000 requests by Saturday afternoon, less than a day after the company made a webform available for Europeans to request the removal of search results.

It is expected that number will rise significantly over the coming weeks and months. "The court`s ruling requires Google to make difficult judgments about an individual`s right to be forgotten and the public`s right to know," a Google spokesperson had said on Friday when the webform was made available. "We`re creating an expert advisory committee to take a thorough look at these issues. We`ll also be working with data protection authorities and others as we implement this ruling." The May 13 ruling by the European Union Court of Justice (ECJ) came after a Spanish man challenged links to newspaper articles regarding his 1998 house repossession, which came up when his name was searched for on Google. The court in Luxembourg sided with the man and said people have the right to request information be removed if it is deemed to be "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant." Prior to Friday, Google only removed results that link to pages containing certain personal information such as national identification numbers. But as a result of the May 13 ruling, Google and other search engines in the European Union may now be obligated to remove information that is argued to have no public interest or is viewed to be harmful to citizens` personal rights and freedoms. "That data subject may approach the operator directly and, where the operator does not grant his request, bring the matter before the competent authorities in order to obtain, under certain conditions, the removal of that link from the list of results," the court said in its ruling, which was met with severe criticism from journalists and other groups advocating for freedom of information. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales was among those who expressed discontent with the ruling, stating that it affects journalism and the free flow of information on the Internet. "The newspaper can continue to publish - but can`t be found in Google. That`s censorship of the newspaper," he said.