A French startup service that launched last week says more than 1,100 people in Europe have used its website to file “right to be forgotten” requests with Google. Forget.me was created shortly after the European Court ruled that citizens have a right to have objectionable personal information about them removed from Google searches. Forget.me said Monday that so far about 350 people a day have submitted “forgotten” applications, requesting a total of more than 5,200 links be removed from Google search results. “Invasion of privacy” and “defamation and insult” were the most frequently cited reasons for the requests. “I am targeted by false rumours presenting me as a member of a cult,” one applicant wrote. Though the European Court ruling doesn’t apply in America, Forget.me said a third of its website visits fame from the U.S. — more than any other country.
Europeans actually don’t need to use the Forget.me service to ask Google to remove unflattering links; the search giant has its own online form that people can fill out. Published reports suggest tens of thousands of Europeans have filed such requests directly with Google.
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IN-DEPTH
- Google Removes First Search Results After EU Ruling
- Google Opens Privacy Web Form For 'Right To Be Forgotten' Requests
- The 'right to be forgotten' doesn't mean we should be censoring Google results (Guardian)
SOCIAL
— James Eng, NBC News
