Google takes steps to comply with EU’s ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling.
The world’s largest Internet search engine, which processes more than 90 percent of all Web searches in Europe, said on Thursday that it has made available a webform through which people can submit their requests, but stopped short of specifying when it would remove links that meet the criteria for being taken down.
Google said it has convened a committee of senior Google executives and independent experts to try and craft a long-term approach to dealing with what’s expected to be a barrage of requests from the region’s roughly half-billion occupants.
“To comply with the recent European court ruling, we’ve made a webform available for Europeans to request the removal of results from our search engine,” Google said in a statement.
“The court’s ruling requires Google to make difficult judgments about an individual’s right to be forgotten and the public’s right to know. We’re creating an expert advisory committee to take a thorough look at these issues. We’ll also be working with data protection authorities and others as we implement this ruling.”
The decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union requires that Internet search services remove information deemed “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant.” Failure to do so can result in fines. Google, which began getting requests to remove objectionable personal information from its search engine shortly after the ruling this month, has said it was disappointed by the decision.
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has said the ruling created an inherent conflict between the “right to be forgotten and a right to know” – referring to the delicate balance of enforcing the ruling while preserving a stated corporate philosophy of making as much information freely available to as many people as possible. Google added on Thursday that it will work with data protection authorities and others as it implements the ruling.
Data Headaches
The court decision creates extra headaches for U.S. Web companies, which have businesses based on handling tremendous amounts of data that often aren’t touched by humans. It paves the way for European users to flood the firms with Web takedown requests, adding to costs.
The shares of Google were little changed at $559.89 at the close in New York yesterday.
The right to be forgotten and the right to free information “are not foes but friends,” Reding said. “It’s not about protecting one at the expense of the other but striking the right balance in order to protect both.”
“The European court made it clear that two rights do not make a wrong and has given clear directions on how this balance can be found and where the limits of the right to be forgotten lie,” she said. “It is mass surveillance not data protection that legitimizes the actions of repressive regimes.”
Tougher Rules
The EU’s move toward tougher rules may make it harder for Internet startups, according to Page’s FT interview.
“We’re a big company and we can respond to these kind of concerns and spend money on them and deal with them, it’s not a problem for us,” he told the FT. “But as a whole, as we regulate the Internet, I think we’re not going to see the kind of innovation we’ve seen.”
The new special committee has five members, including Wikipedia’s Wales, Frank La Rue from the United Nations, Peggy Valcke of the University of Leuven law school, academic Jose Luis Pinar, and Oxford University’s Luciano Floridi.
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