The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has ordered Google to remove nine search results, under the European Right to be Forgotten ruling, because they linked to news stories including details or a minor criminal offence committed by a person nearly 10 years ago. Google had previously removed other links following a request from the individual, but the removal of the links became a news story and links to the later news stories became part of the results when searching for the complainant’s name on Google.
The company refused the request for the later links to be removed, because they linked to articles about its decision to delist a search result and were an essential part of a recent news story relating to a matter of significant public importance. The ICO recognised this, but said it did not justify including links to the content when a search is made by entering the person’s name. The ICO has issued an enforcement notice requiring the links to be removed from the search results within 35 days.
