Bing begins processing ‘right to be forgotten’ search result removal requests in Europe

Microsoft’s search engine Bing has begun to remove search results in Europe that mention individuals who have invoked their ‘right to be forgotten’, reports removal request service Forget.me.

Following a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union in May, Bing began accepting removal requests in July by releasing a form for users to fill out. Forget.me reports that users of its service who requested Bing to remove requests have now begun to receive responses.

Of the 699 requests made via Forget.me, 79 have received responses so far, all of which have been refusals to comply. Two of the refusals cite unjustified reasoning, while the rest are responses to search results pointing to content on social networks, for which Bing suggests requesting takedowns directly on those social networks for effective search result removal.

The head of Article 29 Working Party of EU national data protection authorities said earlier this week that it won’t be mandatory for Google to notify publishers and media outlets when their stories are delisted from search results – so it’s also possible that Bing has complied with other requests and removed them, but Forget.me hasn’t received any such notifications.

Update: a Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed that has accepted ‘right to be forgotten’ requests and is implementing them. Here’s what they had to say:

“We’ve begun processing requests as a result of the court’s ruling and in accordance with the guidance from European data protection authorities. While we’re still refining that process, our goal is to strike a satisfactory balance between individual privacy interests and the public’s interest in free expression.”

➤ The ‘Right To Be Forgotten’: Bing has started responding to search engine removal requests [Forget.me]