BBC News reports that Google has received fresh
takedown requests after a European court ruled that an individual could
force it to remove "irrelevant and outdated" search results. An ex-politician seeking re-election has asked to have links to an article about his behaviour in office removed. And a doctor wants negative reviews from patients removed from the results. Google itself has not commented on the so-called
right-to-be-forgotten ruling since it described the the European Court
of Justice judgement as being "disappointing". Nor has it released any figures about the number of take-down requests received since Tuesday. The original case was brought by a Spanish man who complained
that an auction notice of his repossessed home on Google's search
results had infringed his privacy. EU Commissioner Viviane Reding said the decision was "a clear
victory for the protection of personal data of Europeans" but others
are concerned about the consequences that it will have for search
engines and others.
Clearly people have right to privacy but this ruling could lead to people and organisations trying to manipulate search results. Could search engines now be at the mercy of individuals for once?
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