‘Privacy watchdogs also want deleted results from international Google’

European privacy watchdogs want Google to remove search results that have been removed based on a recent EU court ruling from the international version of its search engine. So far this only happens with the European versions.

Because search results can now be found in the international, English version of Google, it is relatively easy to find the search results that have been removed. A user can switch to the international version with one click. That rarely happens – only five percent of Google traffic from Europe goes to the international version – but European privacy watchdogs want the detour to end, anonymous sources report to Bloomberg.

Google must in certain cases remove search results if people request it, the European Court of Justice ruled earlier this year. The company now has a tool that allows people to request links that they want removed, if they are offensive, for example. This is possible even if the linked page itself is acceptable.

The European privacy watchdogs are also not happy that Google notifies websites when results are removed from the search index; in that case, they can bring the stories back to the fore, as several British media outlets have already done. The privacy watchdogs also believe that Google should not display a notification under a search results page for people stating that results may have been omitted.