Even as Google has publicly stated its frustration and disagreement over a ruling by a European court that allows average citizens to request personal data be removed from online searches, Google has announced it is beginning to remove such results from European searches as per the court's directive. The move is a monumental decision in the ongoing battle of privacy rights versus public interest.
Google has long maintained that it believes it is the right of everyone to have access to any and all information and says the European Court of Justice ruling is an infringement on freedom of speech and access to public information.
According to the court, European Union citizens may request the removal of embarrassing or irrelevant information that is not deemed worthy of public attention. The case came about via a Spanish citizen, who argued that a photo of himself standing in front of his former house as he was being evicted had hurt his ability to find a job in the future, as employers discovered the image.
The court sided with him, and has demanded that Google remove information at the request of users, who must file a petition with the search company in order to have such searches taken down. The May decision has been dubbed by the court citizen's "right to be forgotten."
The company said Thursday it has begun taking down results. But Google's European spokesman Al Verney added that there is a significant backlog of requests to work through, which means it could be some time before requests are removed entirely.
"Each request has to be assessed individually," Verney said.
Around 50,000 requests have been received by Google.
Google has not released information on what complaints appear to fall into areas the court specified as potentially objectionable: results that are "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant."
While Google might be lashing out at the ruling, there is massive support from citizens' rights groups who say the "right to be forgotten" should be a right that all people have. European Union Commissioner Viviane Reding called the court's ruling a "clear victory for the protection of personal data of Europeans."
The ruling does not affect Americans.
Google appears extremely disappointed by the ruling, which is the first major defeat in the battle over search rights. The likelihood of Google trying to take more legal action to reverse the ruling seems unlikely, as per the Google spokesperson.
