Google reported this week that it has received more than 2.4 million requests to remove URLs from its search results under Europe’s “right to be forgotten” laws since they were first introduced in May 2014.
The report marks the first instance Google has disclosed information about removal requests under the right to be forgotten laws and is part of the company’s attempts to expand its transparency reports.
Of the 2.4 million requests Google received to de-list websites containing information from its search engine, nearly one quarter—24 percent—related to “professional information,” which Google defines as “a requester’s work address, contact information or neutral stories about their business activities.”
Just over 10 percent of the requests were identified as “self-authored” content—posts, articles and other information that was written by the requester. Crime and professional wrongdoing followed with eight and seven percent of the total requests, respectively.
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