Google widens scope of "right to be forgotten" due to pressure from EU privacy laws

In compliance with EU law, Google will now extend the removal of content for all versions of the search engine under the "right to be forgotten" ruling.

Under the ruling, EU citizens have the right to ask Google and other search engines to remove content about them as if the data was never there in the first place. This is in line with the more strict and robust privacy laws in the EU.

According to the BBC, before this extended blanket, content about EU citizens will only disappear from sites like google.co.uk or google.fr. With the wider blanket, the content in question will not appear in the main site google.com and all its global versions.

The technology used is IP detection. Engadget explained that when a person in France searches Google for information that has been removed, they won't be able to see the content even if they use google.com or any of its international versions. That is, as long as that person is using the search engine in the EU territory. However, if people use the search engine in a country outside of the EU, the content will be visible as if nothing was ever removed.

This doesn't seem to be a big change according to Ubergizmo, as using a VPN will easily get around these restrictions.It is also pointed out that Google already informed EU data protection authorities about it. The BBC believes that the effect will appear mid-February.

The EU has always been known for their strict privacy and anti-competitive laws. Google and Facebook are just a couple of big American companies that they have butted heads with. In the late 90's, the EU got Microsoft in hot water with their handling of Internet Explorer 6 being bundled in Windows XP. The EU thought that the act was monopolistic and anti-competitive.

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Google, right to be forgotten, EU, European Union, privacy

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