A few weeks back, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the people of Europe have the right to be forgotten if they wish.
Whether they like it or not, Google has been forced to allow individuals to have certain links and content removed from their search engines, starting yesterday (Friday, 30th May, 2014).
So how do you remove yourself from Google?
Individuals who want content removed need to fill out an online form (seen in part below), at which point Google will then decide if the particular request is worthy of action or not. The particular form in question is now publicly available online and appears much the way you might expect.
Are there any caveats?
Well, Google is not just taking every request though, the company said it will not be removing important data the public has a right to know, but only information that may be bad for someones reputation. However, celebrities and politicians for example, will find it difficult getting embarrassing data removed from the search engine, as that may not fall under the category of life-threatening or reputation destroying. Google actually reserves the right to reject any requests, so monitoring the situation may be difficult t address.
Are you happy for your personal information to be recorded and kept by Google? The office is more-or-less split 50/50 on this one… What are your thoughts?
