Many British want to be forgotten
online, it would seem. Google has revealed in its latest transparency report
(bit.ly/forgotten356) that 18,486 requests have been made by British citizens
to remove 63,616 links under the ‘right to be forgotten rule’, accounting for
roughly one in 10 of all requests made, and behind only France and Germany. The
controversial rule which was upheld by a
European court in May - means Google has to stop showing search results that
are considered out of date or irrelevant after a request from the individual
they affect. Many people protest that the rule is tantamount to censorship,
while others say it shows Europe has more respect for user privacy than other
cultures do.
Recommended Read--> How To Remove Yourself From Google
However, Google doesn't always
comply with requests to delink pages. Of the 60,000 links UK citizens have
asked Google to remove from its search results, only 35 per cent have been
pulled, whereas half the requests made in Germany have been complied with. For
example, Google said a UK “media professional” asked for four articles to be
delinked for “embarrassing content”, while another Brit asked Google to remove
links to articles that “reference his dismissal for sexual crimes committed on
the job. Also, a former clergyman from the UK asked for a pair of links to be
removed about an investigation Into sexual-abuse accusations. In all three
cases, Google did not remove any links.
Additionally, a UK doctor asked
for 50 links to stories about a failed procedure to be removed; Google only
removed three because they mentioned personal details about him but didn't
mention the botched procedure. However, Google did remove a link to a news story
about a British man’s guilty verdict for an unnamed crime, because his
“conviction has been spent”.
The three websites most affected
by removed links include Facebook, Profile Engine and
Google’s own YouTube. The “forgotten” pages still remain online, of course, and
can be found through Google’s non-European search domains, such as Google.com.
Since the court ruling, Google said it has received a total of 146,357 requests
to remove 498,737 links; of those, 42 per cent were delinked and the rest
refused.
How will it affect you?
It’s worth remembering that links
are removed only for a specific name search. For example, the court case that
was upheld centered on a page that featured details of a mortgage default by a
Spanish man named Mario Costeja Gonzalez. If you search for his name on a
European version of Google, that page should not come up in results. However,
if you search for another name or detail that appears on the page, the article
will still show up.
If you want to know which pages
have been removed, a list is being collated at hiddenfromgoogle.com. Wikipedia
and several newspapers are now publicizing the fact that their articles have
been delinked, which rather contradicts the spirit of the ‘right to be forgotten’
rule.
If you want to report a link to be
removed, you can do so via a web form at bit.ly/remove356. You’ll need to
explain why you want it removed and supply a copy of photo identification.
What do we think?
This law has been controversial,
as has Google’s implementation of it. Critics say the right to be forgotten
makes it easy for people to clean up negative but truthful stories about them,
while those in favor of it say people should be allowed to move on with their
lives. We’re not entirely comfortable that the rule makes Google - a private,
profit- ma king US corporation - the arbiter of what we should be able to find
online. However, it’s also clear that many people in the UK are happy to see
the ‘right to be forgotten’ rule in place, because they’re taking advantage of
it.
Sadly, the way the rule is
currently being used is too broad, leaving it open to abuse and putting too
much power to the hands of Google and other US companies.
