Somewhere out there, amidst the sea of Google Searches, lives your private input history.
Photo credit: https://www.dailydot.com/debug/google-right-to-be-forgotten-requests/ (The Daily Dot)
In Brief
Since the dawn of online search engines, Google has played an integral part in our daily lives. We frequently plug in hundreds of inputs into Google Search, which range from personal matters to business dealings. Upon day's end, when you close out of your web browser, that information you requested doesn't simply vanish into thin air. Somewhere out there, amidst the sea of Google Searches, lives your private input history.
Somewhere out there, amidst the sea of Google Searches, lives your private input history.
The issue of online privacy is precisely why in May of 2014, The European Court of Justice ruled that EU citizens have the "right to be forgotten" (RTBF) on Google. In other words, one has the right to delist URLs that appear from one's search results. As of 2014, Google has received a flood of RTBF requests – 2.4 million – and a majority of these requests relate to sensitive personal information and legal history.
What Google's Transparency Report Says
Photo Credit: https://blog.google/topics/google-europe/updating-our-right-be-forgotten-transparency-report/ (Google)
Google has recently come out with a new transparency report, which provides and assessment of the RTBF requests that EU citizens have made from 2014–2017. According to Google, requests from individuals to delist search results are valid if the queries are "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive". Additionally, Google's delisting authentication process also keeps in mind the public role of the individual. Google only removes those queries that are related to the user's name, and the URLs in question are removed from Google searches in Europe. This means that if a user from Italy receives a search result that is related to your name (which has already been delisted, and let's say your from Spain), the Italian user will be denied access to that URL by Google.
The Stats (As provided from Google's research paper, "Three years of the Right to be Forgotten")
As of May 29th, 2014, 655,429 RTBF requests have been delisted out of 2,439,892 total requests.
33% of requested URLs have to do with personal information that is connected with social media and directory services
20% of requested URLs come from government websites and news outlets, which mostly pertain to legal history
The other 47% of requested URLs relate to a wide variety of searches
Only 43% of URLs met the criteria for delisting
51% of delisting requests came from the UK, France, and Germany (frequently law firms and reputation management services)
85% of requested URLs were from private persons
Does RTBF Only Pertain To Google Searches?
No; as a matter of fact, RTBF requests include search engines like Bing and Yahoo.
How Does Google Evaluate Requests?
Each RTBF request made by a user is assigned to a reviewer by Google. The reviewing process is completed manually, and not by automated means. According to Google's research paper, "Three years of the Right to be Forgotten," the RTFB ruling requires that:
"Search engine operators make the determination for whether an individual's right to privacy outweighs the public's right to access lawful information when delisting URLs."
In other words, from my standpoint, it looks as if the right to have your search queries removed from Google is guided by a utilitarian premise – one that you may not find pleasing. To elaborate, if you send a request to Google to erase your URL requests, and Google deems that the public is better off with your sensitive information on the world wide web, then your privacy will be sacrificed in order to maximize utility for a greater number of individuals. In simpler terms, this is really just Google's version of the "greater good" spiel, which is presented as such:
"A few common material factors involved in decisions not to delist pages include the existence of alternative solutions, technical reasons, or duplicate URLs. We may also determine that the page contains information which is strongly in the public interest. Determining whether content is in the public interest is complex and may mean considering many diverse factors, including—but not limited to—whether the content relates to the requester’s professional life, a past crime, political office, position in public life, or whether the content is self-authored content, consists of government documents, or is journalistic in nature."
Takeaways From Online Privacy And The RTBF Ruling
Ever since the birth of the World Wide Web, online privacy has remained a major source of contention. What's especially intriguing about the RTBF ruling is that is solely pertains to citizens of the EU – not the U.S, Russia, etc. The question then begs, if Google only terminates access to delisted URLs in European countries, are queries from elsewhere in the world also restricted from accessing these delisted URLs? In other words, If your request to delist URLs in Italy was validated, can a U.S. citizen like me still access your search information because I am not located in Europe? If that case holds true, then can Google truly say that it delisted your request? Furthermore, does is not concern individuals that Google's "greater good" spiel (as mentioned earlier), establishes the fact that a private company gets to call the shots on whether your personal information should be kept under lock and key, or whether is should be exposed? These are some questions that I will allow you to ponder.
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