I have submitted my request for removal under the right to be forgotten. What happens next?
Once your request for removal under the right to be forgotten has been received, it will be reviewed. The review process will involve determining whether or not the information you are requesting to have removed meets the criteria set out by the applicable legislation.
What will be removed under a right to be forgotten
Which search engine should I first focus on with a right to be forgotten request
What search phrases can I include in a right to be forgotten request
What will be removed under a right to be forgotten
Under the right to be forgotten, Google will remove links to certain types of personal data upon request, except in cases where legal or administrative requirements keep it from doing so. Google deals with a right to be forgotten request in different ways depending on the request. It may send a notification to the page owner, delete all links from the search engine, remove a listing from search results, or restrict access to a resource.
If you wish to have articles removed from Google searches, you should remember that Google will delist articles in relation to specific search phrases. So in the request to Google to delist articles from internet searches, you will need to specify the articles that you wish to have removed as well as the relevant search phrases. Search phrases that you do not include with your request to Google, will still bring up the article that you wish to have removed.
Which search engine should I first focus on with a right to be forgotten request
You should first focus on Google with a right to be forgotten request. Then move to make similar requests from other search engines. Google tends to be the most popular search platform but also the most stubborn one when it comes to removing articles from search engines under a right to be forgotten.
We, therefore, advise clients to first ensure that the links to the offending articles are delisted from Google searches before moving to do the same with the other platforms. Google is by far the most popular search engine. Once we have successfully delisted the offending links from Google, we will do the same with Bing and Yahoo and any other search engine that you wish us to work on.
There will be an additional cost to this but as the bulk of the work would have already been carried out with Google, we will only charge for any additional time it takes to complete additional work in relation to each of the other search engines.
What search phrases can I include in a right to be forgotten request
Search phrases that you can include with your right to be forgotten can I include Personally Identifiable Information (PII). PII is defined as information that can identify you or that is reasonably linked to such information. When we submit a right to be forgotten request to Google and to other search engines, we request that the search engine removes the links to the offending articles in relation to specific search phrases.
The search phrases that can typically be included in a successful right to be forgotten request are name + town or city, name + the word fraud or scam , name + the words previous convictions or criminal record and other names you are known by. It is impossible to cover every phrase, so we try to work out the ones which you and we believe that internet users are likely to search for.
What do I do if in the future one of the delisted articles under a right to be forgotten reappear on Google searches
Generally speaking, if in the future one of the delisted articles under a right to be forgotten reappears on Google searches, Google will delist the article again. This will often depend on the individual case. If Google is satisfied that the article was previously delisted, they will more than likely delist it again.
Google will do the same if it determines that the delisted content still exists. Generally, it will depend on the amount of time that has elapsed since the initial delisting. It is unlikely that after we have delisted the offending articles from Google searches, those articles will reappear. This does happen, however, from time to time and the most common reason why links to articles might come back to Google searches is that the articles were republished under a new URL.
The original publisher might have moved the articles to a different category or page on their website. If links to articles reappear under different URLs, we will normally be able to ask the search engine to have the new links delisted, based on their previous acknowledgement that processing the content was unlawful. We will usually have a reference number for the successful delisting that we have agreed with the search engine so there is unlikely to be a great deal of work involved in delisting the articles under the fresh URL once again.
What do I do if the articles that were removed from the internet are reprinted or if a story is adapted slightly
If the articles that were removed from the search engine are reprinted or if a story is adapted slightly and as a result it shows up on Google searches, Google should delist the new story as soon as possible. The right to be forgotten only applies to a URL. So, if the article that was removed by Google under a right to be forgotten is reprinted or adapted, it can still be searched for and viewed.
If articles that we have had deleted or delisted under a right to be forgotten are rewritten and republished, even with some variations, we will usually be able to have the new articles deleted or delisted once again. If the original article that we have delisted is outdated, it is highly unlikely that it will be rewritten or updated after all this time.
Particularly with old articles, it would be nearly impossible for the publisher or for Google to argue that there is a public interest in republishing old news as such publication is likely to be considered as a serious breach of your right to private life and your right to have fair processing of your data. What usually matters most is the content of the article rather than when the article was published. If the article refers to ancient events and the publication is likely to harm your right to private life, these would be sufficient reasons to have the article delisted even if the publication was recent.
