Google Begins Removing Search Results Over “Right To Be Forgotten” Demands

Google has begun processing and removing the approved submissions done through the right to the Right To Be Forgotten Form. The Right To Be Forgotten is a European Court Of Justice ruling from May 2014 that EU citizens could request that search engines remove links to pages deemed private, even if the pages themselves remain […]

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Google has begun processing and removing the approved submissions done through the right to the Right To Be Forgotten Form.

The Right To Be Forgotten is a European Court Of Justice ruling from May 2014 that EU citizens could request that search engines remove links to pages deemed private, even if the pages themselves remain on the internet. Those requests are now being removed from the search results.

Here is a screen shot of the disclaimer for the search results for [max mosley] in Google UK:

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It reads:

Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe.

The link goes to an FAQs page on Google’s Privacy section.

Many people in the EU have begun using the form, we’d estimate there are hundreds of thousands of submissions by now. Bing, as well as other search engines, is expected to comply, as well. Plus, we even have companies starting up to help individuals submit these claims to Google.

For more on this topic, see our Right To Be Forgotten category.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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