Google has had its “right to be forgotten” request form up and running since late May. Bing has now finally followed suit with its version.
If you haven’t been following along with the “right to be forgotten” storyline, I suggest you catch up here. It’s just too much to keep rehashing for every related article.
Bing’s tool consists of a four-part process. Users must enter their identity, residence and contact info, state their role in society or their community, request the specific pages they want blocked, and of course the signature.
“We encourage you to provide complete and relevant information for each applicable question on this form,” Bing tells users on the page. “We will use the information that you provide to evaluate your request. We may also consider other sources of information beyond this form to verify or supplement the information you provide. This information will help us to consider the balance between your individual privacy interest and the public interest in protecting free expression and the free availability of information, consistent with European law. As a result, making a request does not guarantee that a particular search result will be blocked.”
It continues, “Note regarding minor children: If you are a minor, you may submit this form on your own. If you are a parent or legal guardian of a minor, you may submit this form on that minor’s behalf, in which case, all references to ‘you’ or ‘your’ will refer to the minor child.”
“Given the many questions that have been raised about how the recent ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union should be implemented, this form and the related processes may change as additional guidance becomes available,” it concludes before getting into the form itself. “Submissions may be reevaluated over time.”
The EU has called upon the search engines to have a meeting next week, and Bing has already confirmed that it will be in attendance. While Google and Yahoo have indicated they’ll cooperate with the EU on the matter, they didn’t immediately confirm attendance at the specific meeting.
Yahoo has yet to introduce a tool of its own.
Image via Bing