Undoubtedly the task before Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is daunting when it comes to handling 250,000 odd requests to
to delete ‘irrelevant data’ from search engine results. Fortunately for Google Inc, the ‘Right to Forget’ clique is applicable only in the European region.
A year after a European Court of Justice ceded a citizen’s request to delete ‘data’ that was no longer relevant from search results; it set in motion the ‘right to forget’ rule.
Now on the first anniversary of this strong customer-centric rule, it is time to gain insight on how Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) decides to process such requests for deletion.
The issue before Google Inc, is to decide which of these requests are to be deleted and which have to be retained. It is a very tricky situation for the search engine to determine and draw the lines between privacy of individuals and the right to information of public.
Currently Google Inc has a process in place to vet such requests.
Every Wednesday, the top management at Google Inc offices sit-down to a meeting; this group consists of engineers, product managers and senior lawyers who will finalize on which requests to remove links to their names are to be honored.
Unfortunately for Google the problem is further complicated, as the court has not provided any directions on which requests qualify for deletion. The court ruling merely referred to removal of those links which are irrelevant, outdated and excessive.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has thus far received nearly 250,000 requests which question 920,000 links. As per statistics, the search engine has agreed to remove nearly 35% of these requests, while declining to remove nearly 50% of them. Additionally, 15% of them are under review, Google Inc has reported.
Further, Google Inc removes the links only from the European-related domains of Google.fr or Google.co.uk the link is retained in Google.com, even when accessed in Europe.
Google Inc’s Fleishcer remarks that the company looks at each case separately and then votes on it to make the decision to delete.
