The “Right to be Forgotten” is a privacy ruling that enables Europeans to delist certain URLs appearing in search results related to their name. In order to illuminate the effect this ruling has on information access, we conduct a retrospective measurement study of 2.4 million URLs that were requested for delisting from Google Search over the last three and a half years. We analyze the countries and anonymized parties generating the largest volume of requests; the news, government, social media, and directory sites most frequently targeted for delisting; and the prevalence of extraterritorial requests. Our results dramatically increase transparency around the Right to be Forgotten and reveal the complexity of weighing personal privacy against public interest when resolving multi-party privacy conflicts that occur across the Internet.
Three years of the Right to be Forgotten
- Download Publication • Bibtex
- Conference Under Submission 2018
- Authors Theo Bertram , Elie Bursztein , Stephanie Caro , Hubert Chao , Rutledge Chin Feman , Peter Fleischer , Albin Gustafsson , Jess Hemerly , Chris Hibbert , Luca Invernizzi , Lanah Kammourieh Donnelly , Jason Ketover , Jay Laefer , Paul Nicholas , Yuan Niu , Harjinder Obhi , David Price , Andrew Strait , Kurt Thomas , Al Verney
Selected press articles
Google has received 2.4 million URL removal requests under EU 'right to be forgotten' laws
The Verge - Thuy Ong - Feb 2018
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PDFRecht auf Vergessenwerden: Google erhielt bislang 2,4 Millionen URL-Löschanfragen
Heise Online - Daniel Berger - Feb 2018
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PDFPeople Have Asked Google to Remove 2.4 Million Links About Them. Here's What They Want to Forget
Fortune - David Meyer - Feb 2018
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PDFDroit à l’oubli : en presque quatre ans, Google a reçu plus de 650 000 demandes
Le Monde - Perrine Signoret - Feb 2018
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