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Google to face data watchdogs over 'right to be forgotten' Google faces data watchdogs over 'right to be forgotten'
(about 9 hours later)
Google is to meet data regulators from across the European Union to discuss the implications of the recent "right to be forgotten" ruling. Google has met data regulators from across the European Union to discuss the implications of the recent "right to be forgotten" ruling.
An EU court ruled in May that links to "irrelevant" and outdated data should be erased from searches on request, leading to censorship concerns.An EU court ruled in May that links to "irrelevant" and outdated data should be erased from searches on request, leading to censorship concerns.
The decision, and Google's handling of requests, has been heavily debated. The decision and Google's handling of the requests have been heavily debated.
The UK's information commissioner said he expects a "tsunami" of complaints relating to links people want removed. The BBC understands that the search firm informed the watchdogs that it had now received more than 91,000 requests.
Speaking to Radio 5 Live's Wake Up To Money, Christopher Graham said Google had a responsibility to deal with the issue. These in turn covered a total of 328,000 links that applicants wanted taken down.
"The polluter pays, the polluter should clear up," he said. The regulators were told that the greatest number of these came from France, followed by Germany, then Great Britain and Spain.
"Google is a massive commercial organisation making millions and millions out of processing people's personal information. They're going to have to do some tidying up." Across Europe as a whole, the search engine - which has been critical of the court's ruling - has:
Google, which has publicly expressed its disagreement with the court's decision, is understood to have received more than 70,000 requests for links to be taken down since the court ruling was made. According to a report by Reuters, EU regulators were specifically concerned about the fact that Google had notified the owners of affected websites when it removed their links.
Working party In one case this led the Wall Street Journal to write again about a Netherlands-based investor who had been linked to a sex workshop in 1998, after he had asked for the link to be removed from Google's results.
Thursday's meeting in Brussels will also include representatives from other search engines, such as Yahoo, and Microsoft's Bing. In another example, the BBC's economics editor Robert Peston brought attention to one of his blog posts that had disappeared from Google's search results.
They will meet with a group known as the Article 29 Working Party, a gathering of data commissioners from across Europe concerned about the future direction of the "right to be forgotten" ruling. Furthermore, a website has been set up to log examples of reported erasures.
Ahead of it, the Society of Editors - a group representing media organisations in the UK - has written a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron urging that the UK resists the ruling. Speaking to Bloomberg, the Irish data protection commissioner Billy Hawkes expressed concerns about this knock-on effect.
The society has warned that a "vital principle" over the free publishing, and archiving, of information is at stake. "The more they do so, it means the media organisation republishes the information and so much for the right to be forgotten," Mr Hawkes said.
As part of the "right to be forgotten" process, Google began notifying media organisations about links it was removing - including one relating to a blog post made by the BBC business editor Robert Peston.
Spent conviction
Many organisations have been publishing new articles, highlighting the old ones that have been the subject of "right to be forgotten" requests.
Furthermore, a website has been set up to log requests made under the EU ruling.
Speaking to Bloomberg, the Irish data protection commissioner Billy Hawkes expressed concerns about this knock-on effect, which brought more unwanted publicity for the person who had requested the information to be de-listed from searches.
"The more they do so, it means the media organization republishes the information and so much for the right to be forgotten," Mr Hawkes said.
"There is an issue there.""There is an issue there."
However the UK information commissioner Mr Graham said that some of the concerns expressed by newspapers and broadcasters were overblown - and that there may have been some media manipulation on Google's part. Reuters also reported that the watchdogs were concerned that the removed results could still be found on the international Google.com site even though they had been taken off local variants such as Google.co.uk.
Working party
The meeting in Brussels also included representatives from other search engines, including Yahoo, and Microsoft's Bing.
They met with a group known as the Article 29 Working Party, a gathering of data commissioners from across Europe concerned about the future direction of the "right to be forgotten" ruling.
Ahead of the meeting, the Society of Editors - a group representing media organisations in the UK - wrote a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron urging him to resist the ruling.
The society warned that a "vital principle" over the free publishing, and archiving, of information was at stake.
But UK information commissioner Christopher Graham said that some of the concerns expressed by newspapers and broadcasters were overblown - and that there may have been some media manipulation on Google's part.
"Google is a massive commercial organisation making millions and millions out of processing people's personal information. They're going to have to do some tidying up," he told Speaking to Radio 5 Live's Wake Up To Money.
He added that the censorship debate should not hide the fact that people should be allowed to move on from some incidents in their past.
"All this talk about rewriting history and airbrushing embarrassing bits from your past - this is nonsense, that's not going to happen," he said."All this talk about rewriting history and airbrushing embarrassing bits from your past - this is nonsense, that's not going to happen," he said.
He said the censorship debate should not hide the fact that people should be allowed to move on from some incidents in their past.
"There will certainly be occasions when there ought to be less prominence given to things that are done and dusted, over and done with."There will certainly be occasions when there ought to be less prominence given to things that are done and dusted, over and done with.
"The law would regard that as a spent conviction, but so far as Google is concerned there's no such thing as a spent conviction.""The law would regard that as a spent conviction, but so far as Google is concerned there's no such thing as a spent conviction."
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBCFollow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC