
In a May 13 ruling (pdf), the European Court Of Justice ordered Google to respect what is popularly being called every individual’s “right to be forgotten”, asking it to remove, when requested to do so by its users, all such search results about them that are: “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed.” The search giant, in a bid to comply with the order, has erected a web page that Europeans can use to write in to claim their right to be forgotten.
Although Google is none too pleased by the ruling, the search removal form is already a massive hit among Europeans, with the company receiving over 12,000 requests on the first day (Friday, May 30) itself. According to AFP, this figure was revealed by a Google spokesperson in Germany on Saturday.
With Google saying it will “assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public’s right to know and distribute information,” it’ll be interesting to see how long it takes the company to process these requests.
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