Q. Is there a “right to be forgotten” in the United States? How do you get false or damaging personal information removed from Google search results?

A. In 2014, the European Court of Justice ruled that Google (and other companies that profit from personal information collected from their users) had to obey requests from those users to remove outdated or irrelevant personal information from search listings. This concept is known as the “right to be forgotten,” but that particular legal decision applies only to citizens of the European Union; other countries, including Indonesia, are passing similar legislation.

Image Google’s site has a form you can use to request that certain pages in its search results be removed. Credit... The New York Times

Free-speech advocates and those who believe in unencumbered access to information generally oppose these types of laws — even as the regulations may spread around the world in countries that are trying to protect the privacy of their citizens. However, the United States, with the strong First Amendment protections in its Constitution, has not enacted any “right to be forgotten” laws.