Google bows to EU privacy ruling

Google, bowing a European Court of Justice decision, is introducing a mechanism that could lead to large amounts of private information being stripped from the widely used search service.

An online form, available from May 30, will give anyone in Europe an easy way to ask the US company to censor links to other Internet sites that they think contain outdated and damaging information about them. The company hopes to strike a balance between blocking damaging private information about ordinary Europeans while preserving links to things in the public interest, such as articles about corrupt public officials. In a mark of its new stance on Europe, the search company also plans on May 30 to announce a committee largely made up of outside experts to hold hearings in Europe and advise it on how to deal with its new privacy responsibilities. Headed by Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman, and David Drummond, general counsel, members of the committee will include Jimmy Wales, head of Wikipedia, along with academics and former data regulators from a number of European countries.

Anyone wanting Google to remove links to information about them will have to report three things on the company’s new online form: the URL of the offending material, their home country, and an explanation of why they think the links should disappear. Google says it will examine every request against the criteria laid down by the court -- employing humans, not algorithms, to make the judgments. Links are due to start disappearing after the middle of June. The excisions will only be made from Google’s European sites, since most searches are local. If Google doesn’t agree with the request or cannot decide, complaints will have to be taken to national data protection agencies, who are preparing for what could become a deluge of requests.