Google Will Now Remove Europeans From Search Results Upon Request
Europeans can now request that their personal information be removed from Google online search results. Earlier this month, a landmark European Union court ruling gave people the "right to be forgotten" and said that links to "irrelevant" and outdated data should be erased upon request. Google pledged to balance "privacy rights of the individual with the public's right to know and distribute information," and launched a data deletion service form. "When evaluating your request, we will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there's a public interest in the information," says the U.S. search giant. Google also vowed to evaluate "financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials" in making case-by-case decisions. According to the BBC, more than half of the requests sent by British citizens involved convicted criminals attempting to hide reports of their past misdeeds.