Google risks ire on jogging memories meant to be forgotten

FILE- In this April 17, 2007 file photo, exhibitors of the Google company work on laptop computers in front of an illuminated sign of the Google logo at the industrial fair Hannover Messe in Hanover, Germany. Google's removal of search results in Europe is drawing accusations of press censorship, as stories from some of the continent's most prominent news outlets begin vanishing. The U.S. Internet giant said Thursday it is getting 1,000 requests a day to scrub results. The U.S. firm must comply with a May ruling from the European Union's top court that enables citizens to ask for the removal of embarrassing personal information that pops up on a search of their names. Among links to vanish were stories on a soccer referee who resigned after a scandal in 2010, French office workers making post-it art, a couple having sex on a train and a lawyer facing a fraud trial. At least three British media, including the Guardian newspaper and public broadcaster BBC, said Google notified them search results in Europe would not contain some links to their publications.(AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File) less FILE- In this April 17, 2007 file photo, exhibitors of the Google company work on laptop computers in front of an illuminated sign of the Google logo at the industrial fair Hannover Messe in Hanover, Germany. ... more Photo: Jens Meyer, Associated Press Photo: Jens Meyer, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Google risks ire on jogging memories meant to be forgotten 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Google Inc. risks a fresh round of criticism after its attempts to apply a court ruling giving citizens the right to be forgotten backfired, Ireland's data watchdog said ahead of an industry summit with European Union privacy chiefs.

The world's biggest search engine's policy of telling media when it had pulled links to some stories has resulted in outlets flagging such articles. That may mean more publicity for a person who had asked for a removal from search results in the first place, said Billy Hawkes, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner.

"The more they do so, it means the media organization republishes the information and so much for the right to be forgotten," Hawkes said. "There is an issue there." His comments follow a similar rebuke by Johannes Caspar, the data regulator for the German state of Hamburg.

Jogging memories rather than hiding them is one of the unintended consequences of the top EU court's surprise ruling that ordered Google and other search engines to take down personal information on request if it's outdated or irrelevant. Privacy watchdogs from the 28-nation bloc started grappling Thursday with how to build a more coordinated approach.

At the Brussels meeting, national regulators in the EU's so-called Article 29 Working Party will hear from search engine providers and plan to agree on guidelines in September. The event gives search providers including Mountain View's Google, Microsoft Corp.'s Bing and Yahoo Inc. of Sunnyvale the possibility to comment on how they plan to comply with the right-to-be-forgotten ruling, according to Caspar.

Al Verney, a spokesman for Google in Brussels didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the data-privacy meeting. Microsoft declined to speak about the event. Yahoo will be present, said Caroline Macleod-Smith, a spokeswoman for the company.

Google is telling website operators when it removes links from search results on a person's name that point to their pages. The British Broadcasting Corp.'s website and the Daily Telegraph and Guardian newspapers have flagged stories that they were told would have links cut. Google says it's trying to be transparent and won't share details of why it's taking down links in order to protect a person's privacy.

Regulators are also pressing Google to remove links on sites outside Europe, including its main site Google.com, according to two people familiar with discussions who asked not to be identified because talks aren't public.