Google Notifies BBC Of Article Removed Over "Right To Be Forgotten" In E.U.

[engine]

This kind of action is a complete waste of time and effort! Surely, the index Google serves in Europe simply filters this story out, yet the story persists.

I suppose Google has to be seen to be complying with the law in Europe.

This morning the BBC received the following notification from Google:

"Notice of removal from Google Search: we regret to inform you that we are no longer able to show the following pages from your website in response to certain searches on European versions of Google: [bbc.co.uk...]

What it means is that a blog I wrote in 2007 will no longer be findable when searching on Google in Europe.

Google Notifies BBC Of Article Removed Over "Right To Be Forgotten" In E.U. [bbc.co.uk]

The other problem here is censorship of journalism. So much for a free press!

[aristotle]

This story is still evolving:

However, the article in question isn’t hidden from Google for most of the key search terms – it transpires that it’s only when the name of someone who posted a comment is used in the search, is the article obscured. In other words, the request to ‘hide’ the article wasn’t made by Stan O’Neal or even Merrill Lynch itself, but from a member of the public who didn’t want their name showing up against this article in search results.

source: [thenextweb.com ]

After widespread criticism, Google has begun reinstating some links it had earlier removed under the controversial "right to be forgotten" ruling.
Articles posted online by the Guardian newspaper were removed earlier this week, but have now returned fully to the search engine.

source: [bbc.com ]

[goodroi]

EU reputation management is now a good bit easier.

[Robert Charlton]

EU reputation management is now a good bit easier.

Yes and no. It could turn into a nightmare. There's an article by Danny Sullivan that caught my attention, which suggests that Google's implementation of this could make a searcher wonder whether anyone whose name is searched for might be covering something up. The article is...

Why Everyone In The EU May Look Like They’ve Made A "Right To Be Forgotten" Request In Google
Jul 1, 2014 at 4:00am ET by Danny Sullivan
[searchengineland.com...]

In the article, Danny quotes a paragraph from Google's FAQ on the topic...

FAQ - Privacy and Terms
How are you implementing the recent Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decision on the right to be forgotten?
[google.co.uk...]

Quoting from the FAQ, my emphasis added...

When you search for a name, you may see a notice that says that results may have been modified in accordance with data protection law in Europe. We’re showing this notice in Europe when a user searches for most names, not just pages that have been affected by a removal.

As Danny notes, this leaves the question of who requested the removal unanswered, which is the goal of the law... but also indicates that results have been censored, which is Google's stance on the matter.

[Jim Westergren]

It's more like a "Right to a Streisand effect" ...
[hiddenfromgoogle.com...]