ICO demands Google remove ‘right to be forgotten’ news stories

Keeping the links live also heightens public awareness of this fact, and could spark further debate over whether Google is correct in all of its decisions to delist content. The ICO, however, is having none of this – arguing that just because papers want to write about and debate a topic, it does not necessitate that the individual’s name be involved.

The removals triggered significant media attention, with news websites listing some of those who’d successfully had links removed.

The Cheshire-based Information Commissioner’s Office has issued an order to Google to remove several news links covering Europe’s “right to be forgotten” which Google refused.

Right to be forgotten requests allow EU residents to have Google remove unflattering search results about them – such as a news story about a minor crime – so long as the results are no longer in the public interest. The ICO has not contested this argument, but does not believe the complaint’s name should bring up the search results when typed into Google.

In the ICO’s ruling Smith says that it is “not a case where the information is about an individual in public life or where making the information available would protect the public from improper or unprofessional conduct” and that “the information is not reasonably current”.

The whole point of European Union’s “right to be forgotten” law is to make sure Google removes links to old and outdated news about a person, especially if that news can hurt a person’s business or private opportunity. Smith continued: “However, that interest can be adequately and properly met without a search made on the basis of the complainant’s name providing links to articles which reveal information about the complainant’s spent conviction”.

“The European court ruling previous year was clear that links prompted by searching on an individual’s name are subject to data protection rules”. “Let’s be clear”, he said in a statement. We understand that links being removed as a result of this court ruling is something that newspapers want to write about.

On Thursday, a Google spokeswoman said that the company had received the order and was reviewing it, but declined to comment further.

It meant that links to news stories about criminal offences were taken down from the world’s most popular search engine.