Google has removed 170,000-plus URLs under “right to be forgotten” edict

by Unknown 23:53 0 comments home Tech

Google says it has removed 170,706 URLs in the wake of a European high court ruling in May requiring search engines to take down “inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant” materials from search results upon request by EU citizens.

In all, the search giant said it has already been asked to remove about half a million URLs from its search results, and it has removed about 42 percent of them, according to its latest Transparency Report published Thursday.
"In evaluating a request, we will look at whether the results include outdated or inaccurate information about the person," the report said. "We’ll also weigh whether or not there’s a public interest in the information remaining in our search results—for example, if it relates to financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions or your public conduct as a government official (elected or unelected). Our removals team has to look at each page individually and base decisions on the limited context provided by the requestor and the information on the webpage. Is it a news story? Does it relate to a criminal charge that resulted in a later conviction or was dismissed?"
Europeans must first submit their requests through a Web form. That means Google must take the word of the requester, which may sometimes lead to errors, Google told European regulators in July.
“Some requests turn out to have made with false and inaccurate information,” Google said. “We generally have to rely on the requester for information, without assurance beyond the requester’s own assertions as to its accuracy.”
The Mountain View, California-based company published a few examples of URL removal demands.
"A woman requested that we remove a decades-old article about her husband’s murder, which included her name. The page has been removed from search results for her name," Google said. Another one read, "A financial professional asked us to remove more than 10 links to pages reporting on his arrest and conviction for financial crimes. We did not remove the pages from search results."
Facebook was the home where the largest number of URLs were removed—with 3,332 removals. Profileengine came in a close second—with 3,289 removals. YouTube placed third—with 2,392 removals, according to Google's report.
The European Court of Justice ruled (PDF) in May that European residents have the "right to be forgotten"—to make Internet search engines remove links that contain information deemed incomplete or inaccurate. The plaintiff in the case said that this right was violated by Google's display of a 1998 story involving a forced property sale he used to pay off personal debts.