Ever exercised your Right to be Forgotten from Google?

[anonymous-user]

Just that, have you ever asked Google to remove anything of your from the internet and how did the process go? How long did it take? Did it work? What ID did you give them?

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/legal-remo...

I'm thinking of asking Google to do this in relation to a problem I have where personal information is revealed if people search my name. It's nothing to do with crime.
I'm a private individual with no web presence. They acknowledge it shouldn't be happening and have tried to solve the issue but can't seem to do so! I don't know why. They have asked Google to take the page down and it disappears for a while then comes back - some issue with Google crawling their website.

Anyway, I don't want to open a bigger can of worms by giving more personal data to Google only to find they make the problem worse rather than solve it.

Anyone any experience of doing this.

[Pericoloso]

Posted in the wrong forum ,makes an unhappy google.....

[anonymous-user]

Who is the “they” who are unable to stop your personal information being indexed by Google? If Google can get at it then your personal data is not secure and could be found by others. I’d be asking them pointed questions about why your data is so easily available that a google bot can find and index it.

[haggishunter]

Ironic username

[Some Gump]

It wouldn't be a very effective sex offenders register if the info was private

[Cold]

Some Gump said:

It wouldn't be a very effective sex offenders register if the info was private

Google says:
When you make such a request, we will balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public's interest to know and the right to distribute information. When evaluating your request, we will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there's a public interest in the information - for example, we may decline to remove certain information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials.

[anonymous-user]

Why is it that people who know nothing about a subject don't seem to realise that their contribution will be of no value and best kept to themselves?

[Johnnytheboy]

That's the internet for you. Plus, if you will post in the Lounge...

Mildly OT, just to annoy the OP; one of my neighbours has had his house & car blurred out on Google Streetview. I don't know why, but his car does have a davidicke.com sticker on it, so I suspect he thinks the Lizard People are after him.

[anonymous-user]

Johnnytheboy said:

That's the internet for you. Plus, if you will post in the Lounge...

Mildly OT, just to annoy the OP; one of my neighbours has had his house & car blurred out on Google Streetview. I don't know why, but his car does have a davidicke.com sticker on it, so I suspect he thinks the Lizard People are after him.

I always laugh when I see people who've had their houses blanked out, unless there is something remarkable about your property that you don't want to draw attention to, then what is the point?

One of out neighbours at my old house has done it, funnily enough the same chap who used to put his bin outside his house when he went out, so that nobody could steal 'his' parking space.

[Kermit power]

irememberyou said:

Why is it that people who know nothing about a subject don't seem to realise that their contribution will be of no value and best kept to themselves?

What did you expect when you put this in The Lounge?

If you answer the question about who "they" is, though, you might get some more relevant results, I suspect. I know nothing about this, but would be quite interested to hear from people who do, so giving more information would seem like a good place for you to start.

[anonymous-user]

Kermit power said:

irememberyou said:

Why is it that people who know nothing about a subject don't seem to realise that their contribution will be of no value and best kept to themselves?

What did you expect when you put this in The Lounge?

If you answer the question about who "they" is, though, you might get some more relevant results, I suspect. I know nothing about this, but would be quite interested to hear from people who do, so giving more information would seem like a good place for you to start.

I didn't put it in the Lounge - it was moved there by Pericoloso - second poster above.

I thought I had said it was a small public/govt body - apologies

They agree the info shouldn't be in the public domain but are unable to solve the issue permanently despite many attempts by their IT folks

As I said it's nothing crime related.

For example, imagine you had the same name as your dad who has now died.
You have asked someone to remove information/photo of him doing nothing untowards - you just don't want to see it appear in relation to you. The person holding the info says they have tried to remove it and they are upstanding and honourable in their intentions but maybe just haven't got the technical knowledge to do it.

Not all people are Daily Mail type fugitives of judgement - some information is just private.

So, there we are, but nobody has any relevant knowledge or experience anyway it seems but I thought I'd reply out of politeness.

[Kermit power]

irememberyou said:

Kermit power said:

irememberyou said:

Why is it that people who know nothing about a subject don't seem to realise that their contribution will be of no value and best kept to themselves?

What did you expect when you put this in The Lounge?

If you answer the question about who "they" is, though, you might get some more relevant results, I suspect. I know nothing about this, but would be quite interested to hear from people who do, so giving more information would seem like a good place for you to start.

I didn't put it in the Lounge - it was moved there by Pericoloso - second poster above.

I thought I had said it was a small public/govt body - apologies

They agree the info shouldn't be in the public domain but are unable to solve the issue permanently despite many attempts by their IT folks

As I said it's nothing crime related.

For example, imagine you had the same name as your dad who has now died.
You have asked someone to remove information/photo of him doing nothing untowards - you just don't want to see it appear in relation to you. The person holding the info says they have tried to remove it and they are upstanding and honourable in their intentions but maybe just haven't got the technical knowledge to do it.

Not all people are Daily Mail type fugitives of judgement - some information is just private.

So, there we are, but nobody has any relevant knowledge or experience anyway it seems but I thought I'd reply out of politeness.

Sorry, I hadn't realised it had been moved to the Lounge, so definitely not worthy of usual Lounge banter!

As I said, I know nothing on the subject, so can't comment, but would be interested in the outcome.

Out of interest, does this information only come up in Google searches, or have you just singled them out because Google is now the "Hoover" of Internet searches?

If it does only come up on Google searches, then presumably it's worth at least applying to Google to get them to remove it. If, on the other hand, that would still leave it on Bing and whatever else is out there that some people still use to search the internet, then presumably you're back with the public body.

It's easy for people to look at your sort of issue and trot out the usual "you've got nothing to fear if you're not doing anything to be ashamed of", but it's still pretty bloody unacceptable for a public body to turn round, shrug their shoulders and just say "sorry, we don't know how to get rid of it". It sounds like they're going to be utterly screwed once GDPR comes into force in May for enhanced data protection!

[hutchst]

irememberyou said:

I didn't put it in the Lounge - it was moved there by Pericoloso - second poster above.

I thought I had said it was a small public/govt body - apologies

They agree the info shouldn't be in the public domain but are unable to solve the issue permanently despite many attempts by their IT folks

As I said it's nothing crime related.

For example, imagine you had the same name as your dad who has now died.
You have asked someone to remove information/photo of him doing nothing untowards - you just don't want to see it appear in relation to you. The person holding the info says they have tried to remove it and they are upstanding and honourable in their intentions but maybe just haven't got the technical knowledge to do it.

Not all people are Daily Mail type fugitives of judgement - some information is just private.

So, there we are, but nobody has any relevant knowledge or experience anyway it seems but I thought I'd reply out of politeness.

To be fair, in the example you quoted above, you're actually asking to have information about somebody else removed, not you. I don't think that's how the right to be forgotten rule works.

[Robbo 27]

I asked Google to remove some posts and they were great about it. Some comments had been made about me, naming me, on another forum, I asked for the links to be removed and Google were quick to oblige. The nutter wo made the comments has been banned from a number of sites for similar behaviour.

[Moonhawk]

Inkyfingers said:

I always laugh when I see people who've had their houses blanked out, unless there is something remarkable about your property that you don't want to draw attention to, then what is the point?

Rather ironically - having the house blanked would probably draw more attention. If yours is the only house on a street to be blanked - then people may start to wonder what's so interesting about it.

[StairDominator]

After a spell with the law and the consequential media coverage I.E. being plastered over national and regional TV and (global) internet, I simply changed my surname.

Negates the problem plus it's 100PC hassle free and instant.

[Wacky Racer]

StairDominator said:

After a spell with the law and the consequential media coverage I.E. being plastered over national and regional TV and (global) internet, I simply changed my surname.

Negates the problem plus it's 100PC hassle free and instant.

So you used to be called Jon Venables then?

[StairDominator]

Wacky Racer said:

So you used to be called Jon Venables then?

Apart from the fact Jon wouldn't be posting on an internet forum currently - and for the foreseeable future. Obviously no.

[anonymous-user]

hutchst said:

To be fair, in the example you quoted above, you're actually asking to have information about somebody else removed, not you. I don't think that's how the right to be forgotten rule works.

Well, without wishing to enter into a minefield of pedantry, the example quoted above is about two people.

The person being searched for is not the person in the results but the results are returned in relation to the person being searched for.

Google can block results appearing as being linked to the person being searched for - whether the result being returned are in fact actually about them or not - Google can prevent them being returned in a search for that person's name.

For example, if everytime a search for hutchst returned a link to Rose West - it doesn't meant that hutchst is Rose West or indeed connected to Rose or Fred West. But silly people might assume otherwise.

Google can prevent that page appearing in relation to searches for hutchst.

That's how the right to be forgotten rule can work - it can be properly used to make the internet 'forget' false links to stuff that isn't true or is/could be defamatory.

Edited by irememberyou on Sunday 11th February 11:12

[anonymous-user]

Robbo 27 said:

I asked Google to remove some posts and they were great about it. Some comments had been made about me, naming me, on another forum, I asked for the links to be removed and Google were quick to oblige. The nutter wo made the comments has been banned from a number of sites for similar behaviour.

Did you use the legal/right to be forgotten page? Or some other process?

On the 'right to be forgotten' form you have to give ID and I'm wary of providing Google with something which could go astray