3 years of “right to oblivion”: Google has disclosed statistics on requests to “delete” information
A month ago, in its blog, Google presented statistics on the implementation of the so-called right to oblivion over the past 3 years. From 2014 to 2017, the company received 2.5 million requests to remove information from the search results.
Read more about what “the right to oblivion” and how it works, we will tell below.
/ photo by James West CC
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The “right to oblivion” was adopted by the European Court in 2014. The decree obliged Google to remove from the search results "inaccurate, false and more irrelevant" information about a person at his request.
The case for the adoption of the bill was the case of the Spaniard Mario González (Mario González), which began in 2009. Gonzalez discovered that a search query on Google by his name was issued by court notices 20 years ago, which at that time were published by a Spanish newspaper. Mario tried to resolve the issue with the editors of the newspaper, but to no avail. Then he "challenged" Google. After 5 years of proceedings, the court ruled in favor of the Spaniard.
David Drummond, who was Google’s legal director at the time, called the decision “disappointing.” His position was supported by many other American organizations - they dubbed the court ruling "a blow against the freedom of speech." However, the opinion of the European community was more loyal, since the concept of the right to oblivion was discussed long before it was enshrined in legislation.
A request to remove data from the search results can be formed through an online form on Google. The company opened it for universal access 2 weeks after the introduction into legal force of the right to oblivion. It contains links to specific web pages (or groups of pages) containing information to be deleted, named queries associated with them, as well as the personal data of the initiator for his identification.
The most controversial point in the implementation of the “right to oblivion” is the decision-making mechanism for deleting information. The main criterion is the value it represents to the public. For example, relevant information about elected politicians or convicted criminals is entitled to remain in the public eye. The same applies to negative reviews of goods and services. Therefore, all requests for the removal of such information (if it is true) Google does not satisfy.
However, many requests, for example, to remove insults, allegations of many years ago, photos and other information have to be considered individually, based on the context for each case. The Advisory Council played a key role in systematization of the process - a council that was organized by Google in 2015 and included specialists from the business world, politics, IT, science, as well as representatives of media and public organizations.
The purpose of the Advisory Council is to formulate recommendations for the removal of information, as well as a thorough analysis of requests and methods for their processing. The result of several joint discussions within the Council was the report of February 6, 2015. It described in detail the mechanisms for classifying requests and the types of information to be deleted, and also considered cases in which information is of public interest and cannot be deleted.
This report is a kind of interpretation by Google of the European Court ruling and, in fact, leaves the IT giant the right to make decisions about deleting information. However, every year Google publishes the Transparency Report, in which it presents statistics on the work done.
/ photo by Ralf Steinberger CC
Of the more than 2.5 million requests sent between 2014 and 2017, only 43% met the elimination criteria. The overwhelming majority of complaints (89%) came from individuals, but there were also requests from public figures and politicians. In total, over the past two years, civil servants have requested the removal of about 33 thousand links, celebrities - 41 thousand.
Interestingly, 15% of all requests came from 0.25% of applicants. This is due to the fact that behind many of these people there are lawyers and reputation management organizations representing the interests of other people.
If, however, you understand what exactly you were asked to remove from the search results, then in 31% of cases this is personal data in social networks and reference services, and in 21% - the legal history of the applicant on news and government sites.
Most often the right to oblivion was enjoyed by residents of Germany, France, Italy and the UK. By the way, in Germany and France, the most "popular" was the removal of information from social networks and directories, while in Italy and the UK - from news sites.
It is noteworthy that the right to oblivion Google implemented exclusively in European domain zones, such as google.fr and google.de. If we take into account the fact that during the processing of requests the information itself is not deleted, but only disappears from the search results in Europe, it can still be found using other domain zones, including google.com.
This contradiction has generated a lot of legal conflicts, one of the last was a lawsuit by the French organization CNIL, which is engaged in ensuring the confidentiality of data, against Google demanding that information be removed globally.
However, the position of the IT giant in this matter is unambiguous: such a requirement goes beyond European jurisdiction, creating a precedent in which the laws of one country are imposed on the whole world. Trials on this issue began in 2016 and are still ongoing.
PS Several materials from the First Corporate IaaS blog:
Read more about what “the right to oblivion” and how it works, we will tell below.
/ photo by James West CC
')
How it all began
The “right to oblivion” was adopted by the European Court in 2014. The decree obliged Google to remove from the search results "inaccurate, false and more irrelevant" information about a person at his request.
The case for the adoption of the bill was the case of the Spaniard Mario González (Mario González), which began in 2009. Gonzalez discovered that a search query on Google by his name was issued by court notices 20 years ago, which at that time were published by a Spanish newspaper. Mario tried to resolve the issue with the editors of the newspaper, but to no avail. Then he "challenged" Google. After 5 years of proceedings, the court ruled in favor of the Spaniard.
David Drummond, who was Google’s legal director at the time, called the decision “disappointing.” His position was supported by many other American organizations - they dubbed the court ruling "a blow against the freedom of speech." However, the opinion of the European community was more loyal, since the concept of the right to oblivion was discussed long before it was enshrined in legislation.
How is the right to oblivion realized
A request to remove data from the search results can be formed through an online form on Google. The company opened it for universal access 2 weeks after the introduction into legal force of the right to oblivion. It contains links to specific web pages (or groups of pages) containing information to be deleted, named queries associated with them, as well as the personal data of the initiator for his identification.
The most controversial point in the implementation of the “right to oblivion” is the decision-making mechanism for deleting information. The main criterion is the value it represents to the public. For example, relevant information about elected politicians or convicted criminals is entitled to remain in the public eye. The same applies to negative reviews of goods and services. Therefore, all requests for the removal of such information (if it is true) Google does not satisfy.
However, many requests, for example, to remove insults, allegations of many years ago, photos and other information have to be considered individually, based on the context for each case. The Advisory Council played a key role in systematization of the process - a council that was organized by Google in 2015 and included specialists from the business world, politics, IT, science, as well as representatives of media and public organizations.
The purpose of the Advisory Council is to formulate recommendations for the removal of information, as well as a thorough analysis of requests and methods for their processing. The result of several joint discussions within the Council was the report of February 6, 2015. It described in detail the mechanisms for classifying requests and the types of information to be deleted, and also considered cases in which information is of public interest and cannot be deleted.
This report is a kind of interpretation by Google of the European Court ruling and, in fact, leaves the IT giant the right to make decisions about deleting information. However, every year Google publishes the Transparency Report, in which it presents statistics on the work done.
/ photo by Ralf Steinberger CC
Query statistics for the 2014-2017 year
Of the more than 2.5 million requests sent between 2014 and 2017, only 43% met the elimination criteria. The overwhelming majority of complaints (89%) came from individuals, but there were also requests from public figures and politicians. In total, over the past two years, civil servants have requested the removal of about 33 thousand links, celebrities - 41 thousand.
Interestingly, 15% of all requests came from 0.25% of applicants. This is due to the fact that behind many of these people there are lawyers and reputation management organizations representing the interests of other people.
If, however, you understand what exactly you were asked to remove from the search results, then in 31% of cases this is personal data in social networks and reference services, and in 21% - the legal history of the applicant on news and government sites.
Most often the right to oblivion was enjoyed by residents of Germany, France, Italy and the UK. By the way, in Germany and France, the most "popular" was the removal of information from social networks and directories, while in Italy and the UK - from news sites.
Where does the right to oblivion work
It is noteworthy that the right to oblivion Google implemented exclusively in European domain zones, such as google.fr and google.de. If we take into account the fact that during the processing of requests the information itself is not deleted, but only disappears from the search results in Europe, it can still be found using other domain zones, including google.com.
This contradiction has generated a lot of legal conflicts, one of the last was a lawsuit by the French organization CNIL, which is engaged in ensuring the confidentiality of data, against Google demanding that information be removed globally.
However, the position of the IT giant in this matter is unambiguous: such a requirement goes beyond European jurisdiction, creating a precedent in which the laws of one country are imposed on the whole world. Trials on this issue began in 2016 and are still ongoing.
PS Several materials from the First Corporate IaaS blog:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/351960/
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