Google is holding public meetings across
Europe to debate issues raised by the "right to be forgotten" ruling.
The ruling by the European Court of Justice lets people ask Google to remove some types of information about them from its search index.
Google opposes the ruling, which has led more than
90,000 people to apply for data about them to be scrubbed.
One privacy expert was skeptical about the meetings,
saying they had more to do with PR than open discussion.
The first meeting takes place in Madrid on 9
September, with the other six due to be held in other European capitals before
4 November.
The meetings will be chaired and run by an advisory council Google set
up in the wake of the ruling. The council includes Wikimedia founder Jimmy
Wales, former privacy officials and ex-judges.
Google is seeking input from experts to speak at the
meetings, which it said were being held to discuss how "one person's right
to be forgotten should be balanced with the public's right to
information". The ruling only affects searches done in Europe.
It said the obligation to remove some information
was a "new and difficult challenge" and it wanted help to guide its
decisions about when to remove links to information and when to refuse.
Up to mid-July Google said it had received about
90,000 applications to remove data applicants considered to be
"inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant".
The requests have
involved criminal trials, embarrassing photographs, bullying and news articles
that portray some people in a poor light.
The search giant is believed to have
acted on about half of these applications. Applicants can appeal if their
request is refused.
The European Commission welcomed the meetings, spokesman
Michele Cercone told Bloomberg, adding that exactly how the ruling should
be enforced was the responsibility of national data protection regulators.
Google's meetings start just before a 15 September
gathering at which European data protection regulators will hash out guidelines
on the "right to be forgotten" for all search engines to ensure all
requests to remove are treated consistently.
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, head of CNIL - France's
data protection body - said the debates were more about getting good PR for
Google.
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