Google ordered to remove links to right-to-be-forgotten links

Right-to-be-forgotten absurdity goes into overdrive as Google is ordered to "forget" websites tracking right-to-be-forgotten removals

Google has been ordered by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to de-link URLs of websites detailing all of the links it has been obliged to remove under the European Union's "right to be forgotten" rules. It has been given 35 days to comply.

The order relates to the case of nine search results that a complainant successfully argued were no longer relevant. However, Google continued to link to stories about the removal, arguing that they were relevant to subsequent stories about the removal of those links.

In a typically Kafka-esque twist, though, details of the precise case have not been publicised and, indeed, are blanked out in the ICO's official ruling.

"Google Inc refused the complainant's request for these later links to be removed from search results. It argued these links were to articles that concerned one of its decisions to de-list a search result and that the articles were an essential part of a recent news story relating to a matter of significant public importance," claimed the ICO in its ruling, published late on Thursday.

It continued: "The ICO ruling recognises that journalistic content relating to decisions to de-list search results may be newsworthy and in the public interest. But... this does not justify including links to that content when a Google search is made by entering the affected individual's name, as this has an unwarranted and negative impact on the individual's privacy and is a breach of the Data Protection Act."

Deputy commissioner David Smith said: "The European court ruling last year was clear that links prompted by searching on an individual's name are subject to data protection rules. That means they shouldn't include personal information that is no longer relevant," said.

What is and isn't relevant, however, is very much subjective, with a convicted VAT fraudster called Malcolm Edwards failing in a legal bid to have information about his mid-2000s conviction for fraud de-linked from Google - incurring a legal bill of £30,000 in the process.

Google also lists a number of websites that claim to track articles and websites that Google has been obliged to de-link under the "right to be forgotten", such as "hiddenfromgoogle.afaqtariq.com". However, it lists far more sites offering either legal services related to the right-to-be-forgotten or online services intended to help people file complaints with both Google and Microsoft-run Bing.

The EU's rules don't apply to search engines, such as DuckDuckGo, that don't have operations in the EU, and Google is also fighting attempts to extra-territorialise the right-to-be-forgotten. The French data protection authority CNIL, for example, has sought to force Google to apply its right-to-be-forgotten obligations globally, an order that Google has so far refused to comply with.

It was ordered in June to de-list search results from all of its websites, including Google.com, which it claims exceeds CNIL's legal authority, and which would also clash with US constitutional first amendment rights governing freedom of speech.