European Union wants Google to extend 'right to be forgotten' worldwide
The European Union wants Google to extend the range and impact of the "right to be forgotten" measures that passed earlier this year. The proposal would take the current limitation of EU-only domains like those ending in ".fr" and ".co.uk," and open it to traditional ".com" URLs, according to The Wall Street Journal. Meaning, it'd help to close the current loophole that lets you sidestep any removed websites where unflattering information might exist simply by searching on Google.com as opposed to a European variation like Google.de.
As The New York Times notes, how the ruling would affect countries outside of the EU (including the United States) is anyone's guess -- including how removal requests would be handled from, say, a person in Canada. WSJ's sources say that Mountain View might find a way to implement the ruling without actually applying it globally. How's that? By basing search results on the searcher's IP address. Say someone in the UK did a search for Stanley O'Neal, their results would likely be different than someone doing the same search in Austria, for example. Elegant solution or additional complication? We'll see what the EU has to say.
