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Google Accidentally Reveals Data On 'Right To Be Forgotten' Requests
Colin Castro points out an article from The Guardian, who noticed that Google's recent transparency report contained more data than intended. When perusing the source code, they found data about who was making requests for Google to take down links under the "right to be forgotten" law. The data they found covers 75% of all requests made so far.
Less than 5% of nearly 220,000 individual requests made to Google to selectively remove links to online information concern criminals, politicians and high-profile public figures, the Guardian has learned, with more than 95% of requests coming from everyday members of the public. ... Of 218,320 requests to remove links between 29 May 2014 and 23 March 2015, 101,461 (46%) have been successfully delisted on individual name searches. Of these, 99,569 involve "private or personal information."
Only 1,892 requests – less than 1% of the overall total – were successful for the four remaining issue types identified within Google’s source code: "serious crime" (728 requests), "public figure" (454), "political" (534) or "child protection" (176) – presumably because they concern victims, incidental witnesses, spent convictions, or the private lives of public persons.
Their motto "don't be evil" has a right to be forgotten
The haters will continue to hate.
Old Max Mosley won't be able to run and hide, just try and have his minions edit his past deeds away.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Have gnu, will travel.
So how can one be sure that this was an "accident?"
Sorry I accidentally pointed the spotlight at all those pests who were asking me to help them hide.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
What they should call it is , "little people have no right to know who they are dealing with". Lets face it anyone with the resources can find out all they want about the people they have dealings with. All this does is deny the ability to people who don't have the resources to do the digging.
the right-to-be-forgotten law is the most moronic useless feel good band aid i have seen in a long time
it does nothing effective
if you're looking to make a hiring decision or a dating decision, search on the person using a proxy from another country. 30 seconds extra effort and well within the technical abilities of even the barely computer literate
heck, some euro should write an app for the purpose: "find out what the loser is hiding from you! search their history from another country!"
besides, most of which should be "forgotten" shouldn't be forgotten at all: your douchebag financial or criminal history for example
if you think kids shouldn't be judged for stupid kid stuff: any potential dating partner or workplace that would judge you on stupid teenage crap is no person you want to date/ place you want to work anyways
and most importantly: if you don't want it to be public, don't make it fucking public in the first place. if someone reveals a secret about you they should not have, sue that asshole. don't think you can reverse time and erase public information
maybe there once was a time this info would be harder to find (microfiche in the library basement in the 1980s)
well, sorry: technology changes society, culture, and the law. inevitably and irrevocably. you can't go back in time. the printing press destroyed the aristocracy and replaced it with democracy by making the middle class educated and informed. do the aristocracy have a right to freeze time and not lose to the march of history?
likewise, "right-to-be-forgotten" is a useless feel good band aid that has no real effect just because some old european assholes think it's great to fight the inevitability of technological change. their children will roll their eyes a their clueless feeble elders and reverse this stupid law
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Google does seem to have the knack for finding the perfect solutions to legislative stupidity. I hope they open source.
That's one way to spin it. The other is given that "politicians and high-profile public figures" are a very small minority of the population. 1%? 0.1%? they are massively overusing it relative the the general population.
MAC
... never forgets.
Good Luck!
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
that's what "data wants to be free like beer" is all about.
used to be it took old spies and retired cops with shelves full of criss-cross phone books to do skip tracing. find the lost siblings from adoption situations.do background checks before hiring people claiming to be old spies and retired cops. that's the Internet's job now.
don't break it.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
besides, most of which should be "forgotten" shouldn't be forgotten at all: your douchebag financial or criminal history for example
Wrong. 95% of the request are actually found to be perfectely normal member of the public. Less than 5% are about prison, and financial stuff.
And what do you do when a 3rd aprty publish information on you ? Well good luck with that. And outdated information ? And many country prefer rehabilitation versus revenge. that women for example which made a tweeter PR faux pas ? If it follows her forever then her life is ruined. She will be unemployable for the rest of her life.
Most people do not bother with the US google they use their own language google. And that is enough to be forgotten.
Some "euro" yeah nice spelling. You realize that such app would imemdiately be ilelgal and the person attacked in justice if it sell/offer this app made especialyl to skirt the law ?
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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visit randi.org
If I were an asshole - which I really try not to be - I would summarily dump all the information I just dug up about you (starting from trivially accessed semi-public log data) right here.
The point isn't that "personal information is out there." Not even close. The point is that because we know that, and we know the result of it, that now it is extremely clear that personal information should not be out there, and so we also know it should stop being put out there, and that people can change, and even if they don't, then that fact can be dealt with on a case by case basis. I could judge you on long-ago behavior of yours. But that would make into that very asshole I don't want to be.
The public's urge to punish and gossip and play vigilante is one of its least constructive and most harmful aspects.
You should be ashamed for arguing in its favor or even hinting that the situation is irreversible, from any point of view.
You have previously stated that you knew that the day was coming when your online anonymity would end. Would it not be unfortunate if that was the day someone who really doesn't like some aspect of your lifestyle or attitude decided to play vigilante?
Privacy needs to be recognized as a first-level shield against those of our society who do not think rationally, or well, and are not unwilling to put their opinions into extremely concrete action.
Likewise, a "second chance" mentality is far more beneficial than a "ostracize them forever" mentality.
The current situation is getting worse, and one of the reasons it is doing so is because of the kind of fatalistic sycophancy you write of.
You're a very smart guy. You'd be a lot more of a force for good if you would get on the right side of this issue.