Bing Has Seen Tiny Number Of “Right to Be Forgotten” Requests So Far

Reputation VIP, which operates the Forget.me website in Europe, has said that Microsoft/Bing is starting to implement “Right to Be Forgotten” (RTBF) requests. The company released a study of RTBF requests and Google in October, which was generally consistent with Google’s own subsequently released data.

Forget.me said initially that 60 percent of RTBF requests to Google were being denied. Google itself reported 58 percent.

Whereas Google received 160,000 RTBF requests as of November 5, 2014, Bing has so far received only 699 such requests through Forget.me. One would think that users would automatically make the same requests to Bing. However the fact that Bing has seen so few requests is a metaphor for the market share gap between the two search engines in Europe.

Below is Forget.me’s breakdown of the different types of RTBF requests directed toward Bing.

Most of the requests are related to perceived invasions of privacy. This is the top category for Google RTBF requests as well.

Of the 699 requests so far received by Bing, Microsoft has responded to 79 according to Forget.me. The site adds that “Bing has accounted for 22 per cent of all removal requests made via Forget.me with the remaining 78 percent concerning Google.”

Not all removal requests to Google are going through Forget.me.