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Academics Call For Greater Transparency About Google's Right To Be Forgotten
Mark Wilson writes: Just yesterday Google revealed that it rejects most Right To Be Forgotten requests it receives. In publishing yet another transparency report, the search giant will have hoped to have put to bed any questions that users and critics may have had. While the report may have satisfied some, it did not go anywhere near far enough for one group of academics. A total of 80 university professors, law experts and technology professionals have written an open letter to Google demanding greater transparency. The letter calls upon the company to reveal more about how Right To Be Forgotten requests are handled so that the public is aware of the control that is being exerted over "readily accessible information."
Just go to http://google.com/ncr to bypass it.
"Right To Be Forgotten"?
How about your personal responsibility not to put crap on the Intertubes that you don't want people to see?
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I hope some Americans will write a fucking letter to Europe as a reminder for our "right to remember", because WE stupid Europeans forgot it.
Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
We want to know the names and information of the people making requests to be forgotten, Google!
What *right* do they have to *demand* shit from any entity?
Unless the EU mandated that Google produce such reports, and they've been stonewalling, Google needs to say, "Fuck. You." until those self-righteous pricks learn some manners.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
A single corporation sort of owns the internet. The one search engine we almost all use; that's about as much of the internet as one entity can own. The internet is a public possession, so therefore, their business becomes our business.
I wonder for how long that's going to be tenable, both for us and them.
They're not the government, they don't owe us an explanation for every little thing; they should be able to do whatever they want, within the law, and make a profit. Hell, make a huge profit if you can; I can buy your products or not. Maybe you're a good deal and I got to have it. Maybe I don't care.
I certainly don't want to care, on a political level, what companies do.
I still like Google. I bet that won't last forever. Even now, I don't like the fact that i have to care exactly how they implement right to be forgotten. But either way it goes, it's a big deal to most of the people on the planet.
Damn, that's a lot of power. So far, they've walked that line pretty well. Better than Microsoft, who never quite got to this level of power. Better than the East India Company, with whom they are in the same league now. I'll give them that they are still a pretty good company, doing the best they can.
It can't last forever. Or even very much longer.
Rather a request to understand the process Google is using... the problem of course is the EU Courts came up with this ridiculous requirement, the punted to Google to figure it out. In fact, this isn't a "right to be forgotten", but rather the "right to attempt to make it more difficult to retrieve information". Removing information from the search engine doesn't get rid of the information. If the information is public record then it should be available. If the information is erroneous, then people should go to the source and have it removed. Now of course some in the EU are trying to force Google to make this world-wide - good luck with that... ain't gonna happen.
Fish, and plankton. And sea greens, and protein from the sea. It's all here, ready. Fresh as harvest day. Fish and sea greens, plankton and protein from the sea.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I.E. None. Just one more example of a slow motion shakedown in action.
Google doesn't have a right to be forgotten, any more than Microsoft, or IBM, or AT&T, or Standard Oil did before them.
How about we quit making up rights?
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Has anyone here EVER initiated a tachyon pulse?
Here is your chance. Why the fuck would anyone want to help them with this shit. Many people have voiced their opinions about this for years. It is obvious that they don't give a shit about public safety. Never have. They sure want all the "intelligence" information they can get their stuby little fingers around though. It is all about the power.
The Rip-Off report is a scam website that let's people anonymously post anything about anyone, without any validation. Hideous things about ethics, morality, criminal activity. You name it. Theoretically, "about businesses", but they're allowed to do it about specific individuals. You can pick one out of the white pages. Or your neighbor. And write vile shit about them and offer their full name and general information. And youc an be anonymous in doing it. And that will not only last forever (they have gone to court over it and the only thing you can do about it is PAY THEM MONEY to be a PARTNER and then they'll work with you to mitigate the complaint about you -- but not remove it... because then you'd have no incentive to KEEP paying them). And Google ranks them at the top of most results that they're in. Even though they engage in shitty SEO practices that violate Google's terms for being indexed.
Other sites rightfully treat them as the scummy spam they are and place them negatively as a result.
If Rip-Off report can keep shit some random asshole posted about me as an individual and have it last foreve ron the internet every time someone searches my name even though the person who posted it IS NOT SOMEONE I HAVE EVER PERSONALLY FUCKING DEALT WITH IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER... then nobody else has the fucking right to "be forgotten". So fuck you.
This "right to be forgotten" is impossible!
First, the government required private companies to take action, without any recompense. Few if any companies will invest time and effort in something that only costs them money. Note: it's not only Google (though they are always mentioned) - this applies to all search engines.
Second, the entire concept is flawed: It only requires search engines to remove the links; it does not require the source material to be deleted. Take, for example, the original case that caused all of this: a Spanish businessman who filed for bankruptcy two decades ago. His claim - likely correct - is that this ancient bankruptcy still causes him problems today. Fair enough - is the Spanish government willing to expunge their records? And require all Spanish newspapers to delete their articles? No?
If the academics want transparency, they should be willing to finance that transparency: pay Google to help run the requests the way they want them managed. And Bing. And DuckDuckGo. And IXquick. And all of the others. Alternatively, they could invest their energies in getting this abominable legal situation corrected: Either there is no "right to be forgotten" or else it should apply to the source data. The current situation is beyond stupid...
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Whenever I get omitted search results, I use a proxy to go to Google.com and read what has been deleted. It's surprisingly informative.
Still waiting for someone to write a Firefox extension to do that automatically.
If the EU wants to mandate that certain URLs never get indexed, then why doesn't it simply handle the requests itself and then publish a list of URLs that are allowed to exist, but must never be indexed in a search engine? That way Google gets out of the business of making these crazy value judgements and the Europeans can have perfect transparency. Unfortunately, I don't see the Europeans going for this as makes them look like an authoritarian regime.
So as you say, "Stop Welfare Babies", are you talking about corperations that take huge subsidies from the government and not paying taxes? or are you talking about the person down the street that was laid off of their job for having a kid and now has to use food stamps to buy dipers and food? Because if its the later, you can go kill yourself!