Slashdot Mirror
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.'
If Google is all about doing no evil and playing nice, why wouldn't they delete the information?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I'd be interested in a breakdown. How many are for links hosted by governments? such as court cases?
Please break down by city,state, and country government agencies
It has long been known that what you post online, for all the world to see, is YOUR responsiblity.
Google is ignorant in a lot of realms, and I criticize them regularly. But one thing they DO get right (about the only thing....) is search. They are NOT reponsible for whatever is posted by whoever about whoever.
Don't like what A said about B? Take it up with A. Google had nothing to do with it. All they did was report that A said X about B. Capiche?
Tomorrow - "Google has recieved over 64,000 Requests to 'Forget'..."
The Next week - "Google has recieved over 270,000 Requests to 'Forget'..."
Eventually - "Google has forgotten everyone"
is how the "Right to be Forgotten" started. "Google v González" - Ok, so, this dude petitions to have his name struck from all internet search records because when his name is searched, it turns up records of a previous debt issue where he owed money, and as a result, the government forced sale of his property. He wanted to be removed from the search! What's the result? Precedent set, law passed, and now this fool is known notoriously as the guy who owed money and had forced property sale and whined about it to try to hide history all the way to the supreme court. All of this information is, of course, fully searchable. Good job González.
Google may forget, but the internet does not.
...because if you truly were a "villain", you'd not want to call attention to yourself, and by asking for deletion of your "data" - you're almost certainly in the limelight of discovery.
Besides, as almost every Slashdotter knows, your data won't be completely gone, in fact - most of it will be here and there forever. WayBackMachine anyone? Not to mention the numerous dark corners of the net Google don't have any control over, have your data too.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
As far as the internet is concerned, if you don't appear on Google, you don't exist. Practically speaking, a lot of people doing research today start with a quick google search. If they don't get any results, they are likely to assume the subject doesn't exist/never happened.
As for your point about historical records, accounts etc, the same are often accused of being fabricated/simply ignored. For example, even today there are many who deny that the Holocaust ever happened. Similarly, until today the government of Japan still denies that the Nanking Massacre occurred.
My point is, if this information is freely available on the web, it is much harder to deny the truth. Make this information disappear, and it is much easier to brainwash the public into believing it is a lie.
This brainwashing process has already begun.
APPEAL FOR URGENT BUSINESS ASSISTANCE.
Dearest One,
Permit me to inform you of my desire of having a terrible wrong righted! I am quite aware that my message will come to you as a surprise because it is indeed very strange for someone you have not met before to contact you in this regard.
l am Judy Robert the only daughter of late Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Robert. My father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant in Abidjan here, the economic capital of Ivory Coast, he was poisoned to death by his only brother (My Uncle) and his business associates on one of their business meeting. My mother died on the 15th June 1991 and my father took me so special because l am motherless.
Before the death of my father on 21st December 2008 in a private hospital here in Abidjan, he secretly called me on his bedside, when I sat down to listen to him, he started crying, when I asked him why?
(1) He complained that I am too young to be managing my life with no one to take care of me,(2)That I have not finished my university education as he planned for me, he revealed to me that he has a sum of US$6.5 ,000,000.00(Six Million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars) left in a security company here in Abidjan, that he used my name as the only daughter for his next of kin in deposit of the funds in the box.
He also explained to me that it was because of this wealth that he was poisoned by his only brother (My Uncle) and his business associates, that l should stay away from them as they are evil he warned me seriously not associate with his brother that is my uncle, that I should seek for a God fearing foreign partner in a country of my choice where l will transfer this money and use it for proper investment purpose. Unfortunately, as I was attempting to contact people to aid in retrieving my inheritance, my father's only brother (My Uncle) and his business associates on one of their business meeting decided to besmirch my character and called me a scammer. Now I show up in all search results as a scammer and have no sane hope of achieving my rightful inheritance.
Dear, I am honorably seeking your assistance in the following ways:
(1) To help me by removing these bad search results about myself.
(2) To help me by giving search results advising me to invest the money in a good business. Like Real estate or Hotel Business.
(3) To giving search results on how to make arrangement for me to come over to your country to further my education and also to secure a resident permit in your country.
Moreover, Dear I am willing to offer you 15% of the total sum as compensation for your effort/ input after the successful removal of this bad search result to you. Furthermore, please indicate your options towards assisting me as I believe that this transaction would be conclude within seven (7) days you signify your interest to assist me. Email me on my email address for me to send more details to you.
judyrobert1759@
gmail.Com
Anticipating hearing from you urgently.
Thanks and God bless.
Yours Sincerely,
Judy Robert
Instead of whitewashing history, how about promoting critical thinking, research, and debating skills so people can get the full picture? People will eventually get used to the idea that you can't take everything on the Internet at face value, without hiding any content or throwing any factual information down the memory hole. It may take a few generations, but as the old guard dies and is replaced by the new, people will learn to better handle what they read online.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
No one is asking Bing (or any other searchengine) to remove their names from the index.
This whole thing is SO useless and will be forgotten itself in a few months.
bickerdyke
Um.... I think the right way to put it is: "given the number of catholic priests/ex-priests in the world 41k really isn't too many is it?"
It doesn't matter in his case - if he wants to run a business, he might not even get a chance to prove that the issue is outdated, if it still ranks highly in google searches.
On the other hand, I think it would be highly unadviseable to do business with bank that bases its decision simply on a search result page, without even investigating *when* did the event referenced happen? To me, this sounds like very lazy practice and poor judgement and is going to bring problems down the line.
Better to ask for money loan from a bank that does proper investigations.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
It forgets so much yet remembers so much. Ah... the beauty of the Internet.
I don't care if I'm wrong. I only care about everyone obtaining something from the discussion.
I'm amazed that an interesting and fair article has a conclusion - and a headline - that insinuates this is Google's fault! I know that Google-bashing is all the rage right now (Looks like Microsoft's payments to Burson Marstellar weren't entirely wasted), but Google neither asked for this, nor wants it - neither the responsibility, nor the work and expense. This ridiculous ruling by the EU - like blaming a map-maker for accidents, because they published a map indicating accident black spots - has put Google in this position, not Google. The EU has created a charter for thieves, pedophiles and stalkers, and forced Google to be the Internet Police. This one isn't bad Google - it's bad law.
There have been several tools to search multiple search engines at once and aggregate the results.
How about a multiple search over different countries Googles and just show the differences?
That would immediately show specifically what someone wants to hide.
For instance, I could do a search on somneone in Spain and would immediately see what financial instabilities do not show up here.
Someone in China could look Chinese historical events and immediately have them pointed out.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
This is in reply to your recent requst to have all references to you removed from our search results. We would be happy to comply and remove references to this minor embarrasement from your distant past.
Have gnu, will travel.
Considering the EU positioned this as the first and last bulwark against fascist oppression everywhere.
I would think that would be much higher taking into consideration politicians, pro athletes and college mattress actresses that want to clear their past.
Since they're not (and can not) delete the actual information itself being stored on the 3rd party website, there are 2 major problems:
1. They will need to keep track of each deletion request indefinitely to prevent the information from being re-indexed on the next crawl.
2. Google is only one search engine; there are many others.
Never heard of them.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."