E.U. – Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) confirmed on Friday that it will adapt its search motors in accordance to the “right to be forgotten” in Europe, as requested by European regulators. Changes will take place over the next week.
“The right to be forgotten”, which Google prefers to call “the right to delist”, was established by the Court of Justice of the European Union in 2014, which allows Europeans to request search engines to delist specific links from the search results that appear when their names are searched, if they contain irrelevant, obsolete or “damaging” information about them.
Google explained in an official statement that if someone asks the company to delist a link that meets the criteria determined by the Court, it will be effectively delisted. Previously, the company led by Sundar Pichai used to follow the same procedure but exclusively with European versions of Google Search.
Following European laws, Google will now use geolocation signals such as IP addresses to limit access to the delisted URL on all Google Search domains, including google.com, when people access from countries that are specifically determined by the person who requested the removal of the link.
“We believe that this additional layer of delisting enables us to provide the enhanced protections that European regulators ask us for, while also upholding the rights of people in other countries to access lawfully published information.” Wrote Google in a Friday statement.
Since 2014, Google has been working alongside the European Court to “find the right balance”. According to Google’s Global Privacy Counsel, Peter Fleischer, the company has had occasional disagreements with authorities, but it is willing to dialogue and continue to work for people.
Google is collaborating with the European Parliament and the European Disability Forum to assist people with disabilities
On Thursday, Google’s Program Manager Florian Maganza, announced that the company is presenting European projects developed by the “Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities”, such as a 3D-printed low-cost prosthetics and a global dataset of accessible locations for people with disabilities.
My Human Kit is one of the projects presented by Google, which was developed by Nicolas Huchet from France, who launched an online platform that connects people needing prosthetics to platforms that offer open-source 3D-printed models than are more accessible.
Wheelmap was also highlighted by Google, which started its development in Germany, and is designing a global dataset of accessible locations for people with disabilities, including public and private locations, said Google in a press release on Thursday.
Source: Google Europe Blog