Google’s Right to be Forgotten form

Following the European Unions ruling that an individual has a “right to be fogotten” Google has created a form that allows EU citizens to request removal of content from the search giant.

The form requires a valid photo ID, that you reside in one of the 28 countries supported by the EU under this ruling and that you list the reason for removal of each and every URL you request removed.

There is no clear indication of when this will actually result in the removal of such content, all that Google will say is that any requests go in a queue and that when their systems are in place they will begin to action such requests.

One thing to note is that the content will only be removed from any EU versions of Google, so if the content is available on Google properties outside the EU then the content will in theory still be there.

This includes Google.com which seems to crawl and cache many EU websites so anyone visiting Google.com will still likely see the content, even those looking from the EU. This sort of defeats the whole point really.

In the samr way DCMA requests are carried out, any removals will also be disclosed on the appropriate search results page, in other words the fact that Google was made to forget will be recorded and advertised.

The Google form can be found here: Right to be Forgotten.

Given that the removal will be advertised and that any content is highly likely to remain on Google.com there seems little real point to this excercise and reminds me of my own quote:

What happens on the internet, stays on the internet