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online safety and digital citizenship specialist

BBC's Robert Peston's blog removed from Google search? Not quite what you think

BBC's Robert Peston's blog removed from Google search? Not quite what you think

BBC's Robert Peston's blog removed from Google search? Not quite what you think
04 July 2014

On BBC Radio 4's Today programme (4 July 14) there was an interesting interview with Google's Peter Barron, who explained how Peston's blog has not been removed from all searches but some specific searches.

Here's an account of why Peston was concerned when he received an email from Google stating; 'Notice of removal from Google Search: we regret to inform you that we are no longer able to show the following pages from your website in response to certain searches on European versions of Google'.

Here's the blog in question.

Peter Barron, Google's head of communications for UK and europe, explained on the Today programme that the 'right to be forgotten' request had not been made by the company or the individual who were the subject of the blog but an individual who had left a comment. This individual (who Google can't name) no longer wishes the comment to appear in Google searches for their name.

What this means is; if you search for the blog, it will appear, if you search for the individuals in the blog, it will appear and if you search for the person who wrote the comment, the blog won't appear in that search.

This all raises an interesting point; do we really have the right have our previous comments, made voluntarily, on other people's blogs, to be 'forgotten'?

 

 

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