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Google Starts Removing Search Results After EU Ruling
An anonymous reader writes Google has begun removing some search results to comply with a European Union ruling upholding citizens' right to have objectionable personal information about them hidden in search engines. "Google engineers overnight updated the company's technical infrastructure to begin implementing the removals, and Thursday began sending the first emails to individuals informing them that links they had requested were being taken down. The company has hired a dedicated 'removals team' to evaluate each request, though only a small number of the initial wave of takedown requests has so far been processed."
Data protection in the private sphere is one of the few areas where the EU has its shit together.
It is easy for any determined person to use the Internet to destroy the average person's reputation - the only anecdotes are a lot of money or to hide yourself completely from the world so nobody's judgment is relevant.
steve balmer chair throwing is still there.
"You have just been erased."
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Never trust a politician anyway.
So, what you're telling me is that from now on, people with a past that could hurt them if made public will call Google to tell them?
"Hi, Google, I'm a black mail victim. Here is a list of things someone could blackmail me with"
That's interesting: I was goggling for "Erich Spangenberg" who is what is known to us technical people as a patent troll and at the bottom of page 1 of the google links I see,
"Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe. Learn more"
That's the first time I've seen that message. Sounds like someone is doing reputation management.
"www.google.com/ncr bypasses this censorship and is now my new default search engine."
It has been mine for years! I'd like to have other sites like the Huffingtonpost etc have some of the same.
I change proxies every couple of minutes when surfing an it's annoying that I have to select a US one to read US news on many sites instead of Quebecois, French or German ones getting served automatically.
If I wanted those Id' use .de or .fr
This is like locking the door after the cow has bolted the barn. If there's something nasty about you that got out into the internets, the better solution would be to have Google downgrade the search results. Or maybe just mark it the way Google flags malware or hide it behind some sort of "Safe Search"-like filter.
The way I see it, Google's compliance gives it less of a right to object to a government, such as China, pushing for Google to censor its results in the name of something supposedly more important, social stability because those nasty dissidents are harming the reputation of the Party bosses, who we all know are models of virtue until purged and officially denounced.
How long will pass to have a chilling effect.org like for this types of requests? It will be cool to check what people want to hide.
My concern is how Google handles removing things accurately. This isn't the white pages-- there isn't some person assembling these indices. They've generated by learning algorithms, and those algorithms themselves misclassify information. So how do you get all of your references removed without inflicting collateral damage? What about people with the same name? Furthermore, how does Google know that requests are legitimate? You can imagine political candidates requesting that Google remove their opponents.
Whatever algorithm Google is using to do this, I think its details are in the public interest. I'd like to see them publish its details.
(...) though only a small number of the initial wave of takedown requests has so far been processed.
Typical. They use the fastest algorithms to show search results, but when it comes to takedown requests, they just seem to do stuff when it suits them.
I hope things will improve, though classical capitalism-theory predicts they will not.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
I assume US citizens can still find this stuff in searches.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I want incorrect, out of date or otherwise objectionable material removed from the Internet (yes, I know that's a tall order). So I depend on search engines like Google to find it for me. And then I can go after the sites hosting it. If you break Google (and other public search engines), people will still be able to find the information.
It doesn't take that much effort to find sites that host personal data and then search within each of them to look up dirt on someone. And there are aggregator sites that compile such data.
Have gnu, will travel.
"But if you post naked pictures of yourself on a forum or advocate cannibalism on twitter then tough luck. That's no longer private information as you just published it to the world."
That's where I disagree. When we were young many (most?) of us did stuff which would ruin our carrier. Or maybe we did something "crooked" but now are "straight". But you know what ? Nobody would ever find out without spending a lot of money because information was not so easy to spread. So yeah we were kiddna protected as people forgot our childhood or our misdeed.
But nowadays ? Internet keep the info *forever*. I think this is terrible and would mean an incredible cultural change, and I don't see it it as going toward freedom. On the contrary I see it as going toward repression, less freedom, because *anything* you do , can be now published against you forever.
Remember freedom is not about what is acceptable for the average, freedom is not the middle road, the well lighted path. Freedom is about the side of the road, the less travelled path, the palces with shadow. Society involve only where there are freedom.
What you imply *might* at first view looks like more freedom (of information) but the way I see it, it would within a generation or two mean far less freedom because any mistep would then screw your life forever rather than being forgotten like it was in the past.
That is *WHY* I am for the right to be forgotten. Because paradoxically the right to be forgotten, allows people to have more freedom.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
I suggest a differential search. It needs to show what is not on, for example, Google.co.uk but is visible on the Google.com site. People in anything from business or healthcare to news or politics will need whatever has been suppressed to be brought to their immediate attention.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
It just needs a link to the US Google website that won't redirect to Earth.
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.