theForum

New EU ruling re: Google de-listings


https://forum.unlock.org.uk/Topic26464.aspx

By Yankee - 25 Sep 19 9:22 AM

In a ruling yesterday, the EU confirmed that Google do not have to de-list search results for Google sites outside the EU such as Google.com unless they are being accessed from within the EU. So even if Google agree to de-list after your request, will still be visible in non-EU countries if that is a concern for anyone.

More importantly, in a second judgement not as widely reported, there were some worrying comments on interpretation which of course leave it up to Google to determine the balance between freedom of information and privacy. The new information is that search results push down through time. This helps on the default Google screen ('All' results) but won't help at all if anyone clicks on the 'News' tab - while you can do a lot of work yourself to get more positive links displayed, it's very hard to get them to appear in the News section.

The court also issued a related second ruling, which said that links do not automatically have to be removed just because they contain information about a person's sex life or a criminal conviction.Instead, it ruled that such listings could be kept where "strictly necessary" for people's freedom of information rights to be preserved. However, it indicated a high threshold should be applied and that such results should fall down search result listings over time. "The obligation to demote search results in some cases is particularly interesting as an example of the courts directly interfering with the algorithms used by big tech companies," commented Peter Church from the law firm Linklaters.

Link to full article here BBC News
By Harmless - 9 Dec 19 10:27 AM

Mr W - 30 Sep 19 12:30 AM
Has anyone got any positive stories about being de-listed? I'd be interested to hear them.

I'm hoping to go on holiday outside of the EU in the not too distant future, so I might check to see how results for me differ, if at all.

A side note for those interested - my court story was in the press and those stories come up first because I have an unusual name. This story about "The Google effect" prompted me to have a go at trying to get Google to de-list those links about me as my suspended sentence is finished. (The joys of an SHPO keep me "unspent" though so I wasn't hopeful but I thought I should give it a go). Google responded within a few days. Some of the links have fallen off Google results (hurrah!) but the newspaper stories will all remain, and will, of course, remain on the 'news' section as well as 'All results', here is the response:

"It is Google’s understanding that the information about you on this/these URLs - with regard to all the circumstances of the case we are aware of - is still relevant in relation to the purposes of data processing, and therefore the reference to this document in our search results is justified by the public interest. At this time, Google has decided not to take action on these URLs."

Not quite sure what "relevant in relation to the purposes of data processing" means but I thought I'd share anyway.


You can use a web site called isearchfrom to see foreign search results. But, the software itself is no longer updated as of 3 years ago (but that shouldn't matter as I suppose, as it enacts the actual searches from abroad today).