Google is under scrutiny overseas once again. The Information Commissioner’s Office, a UK data protection watchdog, has ordered Google to deindex more pages to remain in compliance with the ’right to be forgotten’ law.
When a subject is removed from Google’s search results after a right to be forgotten request has been submitted, sometimes that in and of itself creates news stories.
Now the ICO wants nine instances of those kinds of follow up stories removed. Google has 35 days to comply with this request, a request which the company had initially refused when the complainant submitted a request to have those links removed.
Deputy Commissioner David Smith adds:
“Let’s be clear. We understand that links being removed as a result of this court ruling is something that newspapers want to write about. And we understand that people need to be able to find these stories through search engines like Google. But that does not need them to be revealed when searching on the original complainant’s name.”
Google has yet to comment on this order from the ICO, whatever the search giant decides to do will set a precedent for all future content.
If Google removes these nine links in question, then it will have to remove all other stories like it in the future.
Editorial Credit: turtix / Shutterstock.com
