Some 65,000 Spaniards have claimed Google their right to be forgotten

Some 65,000 Spaniards have claimed Google their right to be forgotten

Spain represents 10% of the 655,000 requests submitted in Europe to the search engine, affecting 2.4 million web pages

   The right to be forgotten, recognized in May 2014 by the European Court of Justice, establishes that any person (physical or legal) has the right to ask Internet search engines, such as Google, to withdraw certain results of searches that may affect them.

Since that right was recognized, Google has received 655,456 European applications (of which 65,000, or 10%, correspond to Spain). These requests affect 2,439,999 URLs (web pages). The company has released these data, which will be updated through a new website , where you can check the numbers by country, by nature of the applicant (private user or company) or URLs that are asked to leave to index (media, government, social networks ...).

   Why do we ask that you remove those searches? According to the main internet search engine, we can know that, of the reasons that are used for Google to stop showing certain searches, the "professional information" tops the list, with almost one in four requests (24%). In fact, private users are, both on a European and Spanish scale, the biggest claimants of this right. While in Europe, 88.7% is private, in our country the figure increases to 90.3% of cases.

On this webpage about how Europeans ask Google not to show certain results in their results, the company also shows some examples of requests that it has received throughout this time, the context of why the request was made and if has accepted this request or not.

   Of all the European requests received since 2014, about a third request the removal of certain content in social networks and directory services, while around 21% were URLs related to media and government websites. It should be noted that in these two cases, the information you do not want to show usually refers to someone's legal history. Google has a web page from which any user can claim his exercise of his right to oblivion. In this form, the interested party must detail whether the request is made in a private capacity or on behalf of another person, as well as the reasons why they want to exercise this right and on what specific URLs.

What is the right to oblivion
 
The right to be forgotten is a legal precedent established by the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2014 after a case presented by the Spanish Mario Costeja González, in which Google was asked to eliminate information on its financial history.

After several years of lawsuits, finally in a ruling of May 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union declared that any person has the right to request search engines, such as Google, to remove certain results from the queries they refer to. to her. Search engines must apply this decision if the links in question are "inappropriate and irrelevant", if they are "no longer relevant" or if they are "excessive", taking into account factors of public interest, such as the position currently held by the person. . Only pages of the results are removed in response to requests related to the name of a specific person.

Why are requests accepted (or not)? Of the 2.4 million URLs that have been asked to be removed in these almost four years, 43.3% have been eliminated, according to data from Google itself. In Spain, this figure turns out to be somewhat smaller: 38.1% of the petitions received have been resolved in favor of the plaintiff. However, it should be noted that some requests are still being reviewed, so this number could vary in a matter of days or weeks.

«Inadequate and irrelevant»

 
But what determines whether or not Google removes the requested web from its search engine? According to the company itself, search engines must apply this decision if the links in question are "inappropriate and irrelevant", if "no longer relevant" or if they are "excessive", taking into account factors of public interest, such as the position the person currently holds.


"Only pages of the results are removed in response to requests related to the name of a specific person. We remove the URLs of all Google's European search results and use geolocation signals to restrict access to the URL from the country of the person requesting the withdrawal, "the search engine highlights.

However, and although this right also happens to be included in the European Regulation on Data Protection, which comes into force on May 25, there is still a lot of controversy about which cases have this right and which do not. Thus, for example, in the United Kingdom a plaintiff and Google have gone to court, given the company's refusal to grant this right to an employer.

The plaintiff was found guilty of conspiracy to falsely state in the late 1990s and wants Google to remove the results that mention his case, including web pages published by a national newspaper. However, Google's legal representatives consider that the "right to be forgotten" is not "a right to rewrite history or adapt its past to the user's convenience".