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In May, a European court ruled that Google must remove "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant" search results when an individual in the E.U., or potentially outside the region, asks it to.
It hasn't gone entirely smoothly. In July, Google removed and then reinstated links to the Guardian's website with no explanation. What's more, Google has run into some completely predictable issues with the court's vague ruling:
"Even if requesters provide us with accurate information, they understandably may avoid presenting facts that are not in their favour. As such, we may not become aware of relevant context that would speak in favour of preserving the accessibility of a search result. An example would be a request to remove an old article about a person being convicted of a number of crimes in their teenage years, which omits that the old article has its relevance renewed due to a recent article about that person being convicted for similar crimes as an adult. Or a requester may not disclose a role they play in public life, for which their previous reported activities or political positions are highly relevant."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by FatPhil on Saturday August 02 2014, @09:59PM
A search engine's job is to be neutral, otherwise it's biased. Do you want biased search engines?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 03 2014, @02:33PM
The same logic would mean banks should not need to implement anti-money laundry nor tax laws.
Yet any bank in the world which refused to help identify terrorists or criminals, or refused to help identify US citizens living outside of the US would be prosecuted by the US Govt and fined heavily, possibly losing the ability to transact with any US bank.
Your ideal of what is "a search engine's job" has no bearing on the law nor court rulings. The EU court ruled that Google have to do a thing, then Google can either do it, or GTFO.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04 2014, @09:34AM
your bank example is a an example of abuse of power
yes banks should not care about the origin of money, or whether you pay your taxes
(on the other hand the government shouldn't care whether banks go bankrupt either)