Adam Ganucheau

USATODAY

Following Google's lead, Microsoft is now accepting requests from its European Bing users to remove personal search engine results. Google began taking removal requests in late May and removing results in late June after Europe's highest court ruled that the company must comply to users' request for information to be hidden.

The term that has been widely coined as "the right to be forgotten."

Bing will accept applications from users to remove search results "that include the person's name if inadequate, irrelevant, no longer relevant, or excessive," according to a Bing help page. A Microsoft spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the company will assess how many applications come in before actually removing results.

Google announced last week that the company has received more than 70,000 requests since starting the program.

Critics of the European court's ruling have raised concerns over freedom of expression, but Google and Bing alike have taken steps to address those concerns in the companies' extensive removal forms.

"This (application) information will help us to consider the balance between your individual privacy interest and the public interest in protecting free expression and the free availability of information, consistent with European law," Bing's privacy request form states.