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Yes, Google Will Disclose “Right To Be Forgotten” Removals

Barry Schwartz on June 9, 2014 at 9:22 am

DMCA Disclosure Notice On Google

The Guardian reports that Google may add a indication in the search results that content has been removed due to the Right To Be Forgotten European Union requirements issued last month.

Google told us a couple weeks ago that they will indeed add disclosure in the search results when something is removed from their search results because it was requested via the “Right To Be Forgotten” form.

Google currently shows disclosure of removals for DMCA removals. Currently, when Google censors its listings, it shows a little notice at the bottom of its results. You can see that disclosure in the picture above.

This has yet to be implemented but we expect the disclosure to be available in the near future.

Google told us that it will show disclosure when URLs are removed under the new Right To Be Forgotten method in a manner similar to above. In other words, while the URL itself is forgotten, the fact that Google was made to forget it will be remembered. To be very clear about this: if someone asks for a URL to be removed from the listings for their name, and that’s approved, the URL will go away — but anyone who looks at the bottom of the result will know that they must have asked for something to be removed.

As we covered in May, we also expect that Google will provide a link to ChillingEffects.org, as it does with many other types of censorship requests, where people can learn more about what is removed. Names, in these cases, wouldn’t be revealed, though those can be deducted from the search the name. The URLs taken-down probably wouldn’t be revealed. But it’s possible there would be some general explanation about what was removed or maybe why something was removed.

For more on the topic of “Right To Be Forgotten”, see our stories below:

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.