Monday, June 2, 2014

Request for Google to remove links about you

google-links

Have you ever searched for your name on Google and saw just how easy it is for people to find out personal information about you?

Do you have personal information on the web that you would like deleted or hidden from Joe Schmo trying to find out about you?

Google has created an online form in which you can ask for the links to your personal data or posts to be removed from search results.

This form is a response to a European Commission ruling that people have “the right to be forgotten” online.

The EC has administered for Google to stop linking to anything that’s “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed.”

The landmark privacy decision by the European Union Court of Justice emerged from a number of cases coming from the Spanish data protection authority in 2011.

This ruling applies across the EU, among those are web giants Google and Facebook.

Clearing Your Name

When you submit links that you would like to be removed, Google says it will,
“assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public’s right to know and distribute information.”
A statement provided to CNET by Google, Floridi called the move “an exciting initiative, which will probably require some hard and rather philosophical thinking.”

Google has pledged to consider whether or not there is public interest in information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, and public conduct or government officials.

In order to ask for links to be removed, you have to supply the URL and request, provide your name, contact email address, and a copy of a photo ID.

You may put in a request on the behalf of another person, like a spouse, or an associate, to have their name removed from a link.

Once Google has reviewed your request and have removed the link, it will disappear from Google search results in all site across the EU.

There is a statement saying, Google’s lawyers are arguing that applying the EU ruling to US publications in Google’s US search results would be “absurd”.

So by deleting your name from the EU, are you really being deleted from the net?
 For more information, view this EU podcast below:


Don’t miss out on the latest tech news and computer security alerts! Follow us on Twitter at @hyphenet, “Like” us on Facebook or add us to your circle on Google+.

References:
Published by Trenholm, Rich
You can now ask Google to remove links about you – C|Net
http://www.cnet.com/news/you-can-now-ask-google-to-remove-links-about-you/

No comments:

Post a Comment