Compliance Management, Privacy

Google advisory committee releases ‘Right to be Forgotten’ report

Google's “Right to be Forgotten” advisory council issued a months-in-the-making report Friday clarifying its position, in particular, the idea of links being removed from both the U.S. Google search homepage, as well as its European offshoots.

The 10-person council said when debating the removal of a link, Google should consider four criteria: the subject's role in public life, the nature of the information, the source, and time in relation to the controversial data.

The group also noted 95 percent of European searches are conducted on local versions of the search engine, as opposed to Google.com. Therefore, removing links from the offshoot engines will “protect the rights of the data subject adequately in the current state of affairs and technology.”

Although technology could prevent European users from accessing links on Google.com, the council believes its use could set a dangerous precedent.

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