Have you ever heard about the right to be forgotten?
Are you wondering what that is?
How to file such a request
and what our decision-making process is?
The right to be forgotten is a right that was first established
in May 2014 in the European Union
as the result of a ruling by the European Court of Justice.
The court found that European data protection law
gives individuals the right to ask search engines, like Google,
to delist search and URLs from the search index
for queries related to a person's name.
This means that when you type in a certain name,
those pages, we call them "URLs", will no longer show in search results
for this query.
However, the URLs may remain in our results for other queries.
The European Court established four main criteria,
which have to be considered whilst analyzing
a right to be forgotten request.
These criteria are: if the information in question is inaccurate,
inadequate,
irrelevant,
or excessive.
And whether there is a public interest
in the information remaining available in search results.
Some countries outside the European Union have also adopted similar laws.
For example, by 2021, Turkey and Serbia had also established their version
of the right to be forgotten.
In this video, we will focus
on the process involved in delisting content,
which you have not created yourself.
This is because if you are the author of the content, you can edit,
delete the content,
or often easily change the privacy settings yourself
to prevent it showing on Google Search.
For example, most social networks provide privacy controls
as well as ways to take down abusive content posted by others.
You can find a list of links of the most common privacy tools
under this video.
When the web page is updated,
Google's cache will update itself over time
to reflect the page's new content.
To speed up this process, you can request a cache removal
via the Remove outdated content tool, also linked below.
So how do you file such a request to Google, to delist content
which you have not created yourself?
We have made it easier for you to report illegal content
through our intuitive troubleshooter at g.co/legal.
This will direct you to a page listing Google's products.
After selecting Goole Search as the product,
select the reason for removal: Personal information
and then explicitly Right to be forgotten.
Once you reach the form, fill out all the information as required
so the team at Google can review your request.
Help us review your request more quickly
and with the best chance of success
by providing specific information.
Please avoid sending us the search link, as we are unable to review it.
Instead, please only send us the specific page URL.
This is an example of how you find the specific page URL.
Do a Google search for the page you want to find.
Then copy the URL link by right-clicking on that URL.
Select Copy Link Address > Copy Link or other similar options,
depending on the browser you are on.
Paste this URL into the URL field of the form.
If you are requesting to remove an image from Google Image Search,
get the image URL by clicking the image to open up a larger version.
Click the three dot Share icon.
In the pop-up window, click the link to copy it.
In our form, right-click and then click Paste
to add the URL to the correct field.
We also recommend that you clearly describe
how the content is related to you and why you think we should delist it
from Google Search results.
The search query for which you'd like us to delist the pages
is usually your name.
If you would like us to delist the pages for a different name,
for example, a nickname, please also tell us
how this name is related to you.
Once you have submitted your request, you will receive an email
confirming receipt of your request.
The length of time taken to respond will depend on the type of complaint
you are making.
But rest assured, Google has teams of experts at work
and your request will be handled with the required consideration.
At least one of our reviewers will manually review your request.
Broadly, the reviewer will consider whether and how the information
may be in the public interest and weigh this against your rights
under the law.
Important factors our reviewers look at are, for example:
your role in public life,
where the information comes from,
how old the content is,
privacy concerns.
None of these factors are absolute.
Frequently, a case presents considerations that point
in different directions.
And we carefully consider those before making a decision.
Should we require more information from you,
we will contact you by email.
Do remember to check your email and help us process your request
by providing the information we need.
Do note that while we may be able to remove links to the content
on our search results page, only the owner of the website
can remove the content from their website.
You will need to contact the website owner
if you want to remove the content at its source.
If the site owner updated the webpage, you can request a cache removal
via the Remove outdated content tool as mentioned earlier
and in the link below.
We respect the territorial scope of the relevant clause in your location.
For example, in the European Union, we delist URLs from versions
of Google Search results for countries applying
European data protection law.
Consistent with the 2019 decision of the European Court of Justice,
we don't extend these delisitngs to services of countries
that don't apply European data protection law.
If you would like to delist a page from another country's search results,
you can file a request at g.co/legal and explain why that country's law
requires delisting.
For more information, check out our FAQs on this topic
on our transparency report.
There, you can also find a lot of information
about data and anonymized examples of requests we've received.
Thank you for watching.