Tag Archives: Right to be Forgotten

Adapting our approach to the European right to be forgotten

In the last few weeks, it has been widely reported that we will adapt our approach to delisting search results under the “right to be forgotten” in Europe, in response to discussions with regulators. We’ll be implementing the change next week.

The right to be forgotten — or, more accurately, the “right to delist” — was established by the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2014. It allows Europeans to ask search engines to delist certain links from the set of search results generated by a search query for their name.

At the moment, if someone submits a URL for delisting via our webform and we determine that their request meets the criteria set by the Court (the information to be delisted must be inadequate, irrelevant, no longer relevant or excessive, and not in the public interest), then we will delist the URL from the search results generated in response to a search for their name. Our current practice is to delist from all European versions of Google Search (like google.de, google.fr, google.co.uk, etc) simultaneously.

Starting next week, in addition to our existing practice, we will also use geolocation signals (like IP addresses) to restrict access to the delisted URL on all Google Search domains, including google.com, when accessed from the country of the person requesting the removal. We’ll apply the change retrospectively, to all delistings that we have already done under the European Court ruling.

So for example, let’s say we delist a URL as a result of a request from John Smith in the United Kingdom. Users in the UK would not see the URL in search results for queries containing [john smith] when searching on any Google Search domain, including google.com. Users outside of the UK could see the URL in search results when they search for [john smith] on any non-European Google Search domain.

We’re changing our approach as a result of specific discussions that we’ve had with EU data protection regulators in recent months. We believe that this additional layer of delisting enables us to provide the enhanced protections that European regulators ask us for, while also upholding the rights of people in other countries to access lawfully published information.

Since May 2014, we’ve worked hard to find the right balance as we implement the European Court’s ruling. Despite occasional disagreements, we’ve maintained a collaborative dialogue with data protection authorities throughout. We’re committed to continuing to work in this way.

Posted by Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel

Implementing a European, not global, right to be forgotten

In a landmark ruling in May 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) established a "right to be forgotten", or more accurately, a “right to delist”, allowing Europeans to ask search engines to delist certain links from results they show based on searches for that person’s name. We moved rapidly to comply with the ruling from the Court. Within weeks we made it possible for people to submit removal requests, and soon after that began delisting search results.

It's now just over a year later and we’ve evaluated and processed more than a quarter of a million requests to delist links to more than one million individual web pages. Whenever a request meets the criteria set by the Court for removal (which are that the information can be deemed inadequate, irrelevant, no longer relevant or excessive, and not in the public interest) we delist it from search results for that individual’s name from all European versions of Google Search.

However, earlier this summer, France’s data protection regulator, the CNIL, sent us a formal notice ordering us to delist links not just from all European versions of Search but also from all versions globally. That means a removal request by an individual in France, if approved, would not only be removed from google.fr and other European versions of Google Search, but from all versions of Google Search around the world.

This is a troubling development that risks serious chilling effects on the web.

While the right to be forgotten may now be the law in Europe, it is not the law globally. Moreover, there are innumerable examples around the world where content that is declared illegal under the laws of one country, would be deemed legal in others: Thailand criminalizes some speech that is critical of its King, Turkey criminalizes some speech that is critical of Ataturk, and Russia outlaws some speech that is deemed to be “gay propaganda."

If the CNIL’s proposed approach were to be embraced as the standard for Internet regulation, we would find ourselves in a race to the bottom. In the end, the Internet would only be as free as the world’s least free place.

We believe that no one country should have the authority to control what content someone in a second country can access. We also believe this order is disproportionate and unnecessary, given that the overwhelming majority of French internet users—currently around 97%—access a European version of Google’s search engine like google.fr, rather than Google.com or any other version of Google.

As a matter of principle, therefore, we respectfully disagree with the CNIL’s assertion of global authority on this issue and we have asked the CNIL to withdraw its Formal Notice.

We have worked hard to strike the right balance in our implementation of the European Court’s ruling and have maintained a collaborative dialogue with the CNIL and other data protection authorities, who agree with our decisions in the majority of cases referred to them. We are committed to continuing to work with regulators in this open and transparent way.

Posted by Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel

Advisory Council on Right to be Forgotten in Brussels

Since September, the Advisory Council to Google on the Right to be Forgotten has held public meetings in Madrid, Rome, Paris, Warsaw, London and Berlin. Council members have heard views on how to implement the European Court’s ruling from more than 45 national experts, as well as from members of the public. On Tuesday 4 November, the Council makes its final stop in Brussels.

A limited number of seats are available for members of the public at the Brussels meeting, and online registration is now open (members of the press, please register here).

As at each previous meeting, the Council will listen to statements from invited experts, ask questions of the experts and discuss matters of law, technology, and ethics. The public portion of the meeting will last around four hours, with a short intermission. The whole meeting will also be live-streamed on the Advisory Council’s website.

During the event, members of the audience can submit questions to the Council and invited experts. The Council also invites members of the public to share their thoughts on the Right to be Forgotten via the form at google.com/advisorycouncil - all contributions will be read. Individuals or organizations with subject matter expertise can submit attachments such as research papers at google.com/advisorycouncil/comments on an ongoing basis.

After the Brussels meeting, Council members will meet privately to deliberate before putting together their report, which will be published in early 2015.

We look forward to seeing you in Brussels.

Posted by Betsy Masiello, Google Secretariat to the Advisory Council

Transparency and accountability for the “right to be forgotten”

Since the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling on May 13, which established a “right to be forgotten” in search results, we’ve received a significant number of requests from Europeans to remove information about them from search results. Today, we’re releasing statistics about these removals in our Transparency Report.

We believe it’s important to be transparent about how much information we’re removing from search results while being respectful of individuals who have made requests. Releasing this information to the public helps hold us accountable for our process and implementation.

You can dig into the details on the Transparency Report, but we wanted to share some highlights from the stats here. Since our request form went live on May 29, we’ve received more than 142,000 requests to remove links to more than 490,000 web pages from Google Search results.

We’ve received the most removal requests from France, Germany, the UK, Spain, and Italy respectively. We’re also providing some data about the domains that appear most frequently in URLs that individuals ask us to remove. Among these top 10 domains are Facebook, Badoo, and two Google-owned and operated sites, YouTube and Google Groups — both of which have their own mechanisms to request removal of content directly from the platform.

To give you an idea of the range of requests we’ve received and the kinds of decisions we’ve had to make, we’ve included some examples of real requests we’ve received from individuals. These are anonymised so that they don’t include information that would identify individuals.

We hope to find ways to share even more information about about the impact of “the right to be forgotten” in the near future, and continue to work on updating other sections to make them easier to use and more interesting to explore.

Posted by Jess Hemerly, Public Policy Manager, Google

Right to be Forgotten Advisory Council in Berlin and London

Over the last two weeks, the Advisory Council to Google on the Right to be Forgotten held public meetings in Paris and Warsaw, where they heard from national experts and members of the public. The next two public meetings take place on 14th October in Berlin and on 16th October in London.

A limited number of seats are available for members of the public at each Council meeting, and online registration is now open. Registration will remain open until the day before the event. There is no charge to attend.


At each meeting, the Council will listen to statements from invited experts, ask questions of the experts and discuss matters of law, technology, and ethics. The public portion of each Advisory Council meeting will last around four hours, with a short intermission. The whole meeting will also be live-streamed on the Advisory Council’s website.

During the event, members of the audience can submit questions to the Council and invited experts. The Council also invites members of the public to share their thoughts on the Right to be Forgotten via the form at google.com/advisorycouncil - all contributions will be read and discussed. Individuals or organizations with subject matter expertise can submit attachments such as research papers at google.com/advisorycouncil/comments on an ongoing basis.

After Berlin and London, the Council will make one final stop in Brussels (4th November), before starting work on its report, which will be published in early 2015. Registration for the Brussels meeting will start approximately ten days beforehand, and we’ll post details on this blog and on the Advisory Council website in due course.

We look forward to seeing you at one of the meetings.

Posted by Betsy Masiello, Google Secretariat to the Advisory Council

Advisory Council in Paris and Warsaw

On 25th September, the Advisory Council to Google on the Right to be Forgotten visits Paris for its public consultation with French experts and the general public. On 30th September, the Council will visit Warsaw.

A limited number of seats are available for members of the public at each Council meeting, and we’re opening up the online registration process today. Registration will remain open until five days before the event. There is no charge to attend.

  • Register to attend the Paris meeting public session here. Members of the press can register here.
  • Register to attend the Warsaw meeting public session here. Members of the press should register here.

After Paris and Warsaw, the Council heads to Berlin (14th October), London (16th October) and Brussels (4th November). Registration for these meetings will start approximately ten days before each event, and we’ll post details on this blog and on the Advisory Council website in due course.

At each meeting, the Council will listen to statements from invited experts, ask questions of the experts and discuss matters of law, technology, and ethics. The public portion of each Advisory Council meeting will last around three hours, with a short intermission. The whole meeting will also be live-streamed on the Advisory Council’s website.

During the event, members of the audience can submit questions to the Council and invited experts. The Council also invites members of the public to share their thoughts on the Right to be Forgotten via the form at google.com/advisorycouncil - all contributions will be read and discussed. Individuals or organizations with subject matter expertise can submit attachments such as research papers at google.com/advisorycouncil/comments on an ongoing basis.

We look forward to seeing you at one of the meetings.

Posted by Betsy Masiello, Google Secretariat to the Advisory Council

Gathering advice on the Right to be Forgotten

In just under two weeks, the Advisory Council to Google on the Right to be Forgotten will start its public consultations in cities across Europe to gather views from a wide spectrum of experts. The first meeting will be in Madrid on September 9, and the Council will then head to Rome on September 10.

A limited number of seats will be available for members of the public at each Council meeting. We’re opening up the online registration process today — and you can sign up for the Madrid meeting and the Rome meeting. Registration will remain open until five days before the event. There is no charge to attend.

After Madrid and Rome, the Council heads to Paris (September 25), Warsaw (September 30), Berlin (October 14), London (October 16) and Brussels (November 4). Registration for these meetings will start approximately two weeks before each event, and we’ll post details on this blog and on the Advisory Council website in due course.

At each meeting, the Council will listen to statements from invited experts, ask questions of the experts and discuss matters of law, technology, and ethics. The public portion of each Advisory Council meeting will last around two and a half hours, with an intermission and the whole meeting will also be live-streamed on the Advisory Council’s website.

During the event, members of the audience can submit questions to the Council and invited experts. The Council invites members of the public to share their thoughts on the Right to be Forgotten via the form at www.google.com/advisorycouncil - all contributions will be read and discussed. Individuals or organizations with subject matter expertise can submit attachments such as research papers at www.google.com/advisorycouncil/comments on an ongoing basis.

We look forward to seeing you at one of the meetings.

Posted by Betsy Masiello, Google Secretariat to the Advisory Council

Responding to Article 29 Working Party’s Questions

The group of European data protection agencies in the Article 29 Working Party last week invited three US-based search engines - Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!- to discuss “the practical implementation” of the Right to be Forgotten. Before the meeting, the working party sent us a questionnaire.

Today, in a move to support the working party’s goal of transparency, we are publishing our answers.



The European Court of Justice ruling has sparked a debate about privacy and access to information. We are actively complying with it. Our answers also make clear that many questions raised by the ruling remain unresolved - and will be the subject of a welcome public discussion over coming months.

Posted by William Echikson, Senior Manager Communications and Public Affairs, Brussels

Seeking advice on the Right to be Forgotten

Earlier this summer we announced the formation of an Advisory Council on the Right to be Forgotten. As the Council begins its work, it is seeking comment from experts on the issues raised by the CJEU ruling. Experts will be considered for selection to present to the Council in-person during public consultations held this fall, in the following cities:
  • September 9 in Madrid, Spain
  • September 10 in Rome, Italy
  • September 25 in Paris, France
  • September 30 in Warsaw, Poland
  • October 14 in Berlin, Germany
  • October 16 in London, UK
  • November 4 in Brussels, Belgium
The Council welcomes position papers, research, and surveys in addition to other comments. We accept submissions in any official EU language. Though the Council will review comments on a rolling basis throughout the fall, it may not be possible to invite authors who submit after August 11 to present evidence at the public consultations.

Stay tuned for details on the Council’s activity.

Posted by Betsy Masiello, Google Secretariat to the Council