Google Has Received Over 41,000 Requests To "Forget" Personal Information

itwbennett (1594911) writes 'In the three weeks since a key ruling by the European Court of Justice about the so-called right to be forgotten, Google has already received around 41,000 requests to delete links to personal information from its search results (within 24 hours of putting the form online, Google had reportedly received 12,000 deletion requests). It should be noted, though, that there is no absolute right to have information deleted, and Google will have to weigh a number of criteria in responding to the requests to delete links, including relevance of the information, and the time passed since the facts related.'

Comments

Re:Do No Evil so why not delete the info?

[FatdogHaiku]

You not being legally required to inform others of your past transgressions is not the same as having those acts concealed for you by a third party (at their own expense). Otherwise history is going to look very different in the near future. Holocaust? Sorry, no records available. Khmer Rouge? Never happened. Every event is driven by people, and if they have the right to have their complicity forgotten, then who caused the event? Yes, I should be able to find out if a future employee was convicted of a serious (read "time in jail") crime... no, I don't need to know if they were simply stupid as a kid. Our prior actions do, and should, affect our future. Having paid ones debt to society is not the same as suddenly becoming trustworthy just because our past can be hidden...