Sweden set to probe Google over its handling of RTBF requests

Google is probably wishing it could extend the so-called “right to be forgotten” to itself right now as yet another national regulator sets its sights on the Chocolate Factory.

Sweden’s Datainspektionen (the Data Inspection Board) yesterday announced that it is to set up a special investigation to monitor how Google handles the "right to be forgotten".

In May 2014, the European Court of Justice ruled that a Spanish national could force the search giant to remove links to outdated and irrelevant information about him, even though the information itself about a mortgage foreclosure was accurate and legitimately online. The ECJ ruling took the view that search engines, and Google in particular, are the gatekeepers of the internet.

The website publishing the information was not ordered to remove it, but Google was instead told to remove links to the article from search results for the man’s name.

Since then, 7,500 Swedes have requested that Google de-link their information. Out of that number, around 50 people were unhappy and complained to the Datainspektionen when Google refused.

The national regulator will now focus on just 13 of those cases over the next six months to find out how the search giant reached its decision, explained the regulator’s lawyer Martin Brinnen. Some of the complaints are from police officers who have requested that links to personal information – including home addresses – be removed.

The probe comes following similar investigations in other EU countries.

With the Chocolate Factory processing nearly a quarter of a million requests, many organisations have called for increased transparency about how the oompa loompas make their judgements.

Google has removed links in just over 40% of cases and has published what it calls a “transparency report”.

"We're committed to a thorough and thoughtful implementation of the right to be forgotten ruling, and we're happy to work with the Swedish DPA to answer their questions,” Google spokesman Al Verney told El Reg. ®