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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.
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
They could change their motto to "Google remembers" but I think Pepperidge Farm already has that one taken.
Google does seem to have the knack for finding the perfect solutions to legislative stupidity. I hope they open source.