Google Wants Your Opinion on the Right to be Forgotten
The recent ruling of the European Union which forced search engines to offer their users the "right to be forgotten" is still a highly controversial subject. In order to try and find the right balance between the European citizens' right to privacy and the people's right to information, Google's Advisory Council is going on tour to get opinions from the general public.
For those of you unfamiliar with the subject, the right to be forgotten is a law that gives European Internet users the possibility to ask search engines to remove certain entries from the list of search results. In theory, this ruling is designed to help citizens avoid public embarrassment and privacy breaches, but, in practice, it will more likely deprive the public of important information such as bad reviews that certain companies receive, articles about corrupt politicians, etc. In order to try and find the line between privacy and censorship, Google have put together a panel called the Advisory Council which deals with the right to be forgotten requests on a case by case basis.
Since this topic is highly contentious, the IT company has decided to organize a series of meetings in which it will be able to get opinions from the general public on how the right to be forgotten law should be applied. The first of these assemblies is taking place today in Madrid, while six other major capitals (Rome, Paris, Warsaw, Berlin, London and Brussels) will follow in the next days and weeks.
For more details on the subject or information about how you can attend these meetings, visit the Google's Advisory Council webpage. Moreover, in case you want to share your opinion, but you can't make it to any of the conferences, you can send a message to Google on the previously mentioned website.
