Today, the right to be forgotten goes through a form that doesn’t listen.
Digital freedom cannot be exercised at the expense of truth and human dignity.
Drag and compare
Removal form
- URL to remove
- Motivation (short)
- Identity document
- Supporting evidence Not allowed
- Copies, mirrors, translations, images, autocomplete Not removed
De-indexing request
- URL to remove
- Motivation (short)
- Identity document
- Rulings, decisions, evidence Upload allowed
- Copies, mirrors, translations, images, autocomplete Complete removal
Google’s procedure today
- Rigid form with no possibility of attaching evidence.
- No human interlocutor.
- No adversarial process.
- Automatic and impersonal responses.
- Total absence of concrete evaluation.
- Incomplete de-indexing, when it occurs.
Correct de-indexing process
The procedure required by the class action must be:
- open to uploading attachments
- managed by real people
- transparent and reasoned
- complete in removing content
In a word: effective.
The class action demonstrates that, without these requirements, the right to be forgotten risks being emptied of any effectiveness.
The current injunctive class action aims to speed up de-indexing times by asking the Court of Milan to require Google to change its de-indexing procedure, which should be completely different from the current automated and opaque model.
We are not asking for compensation, but for a principle: that an algorithm cannot continue to violate people’s rights.
How Google’s de-indexing procedure works today
- 01
A pre-filled and rigid online form
The user must use a standard form on Google’s website where they can:
- enter personal data,
- indicate the URLs to be removed,
- write a short motivation,
- attach only an identity document.
It is not possible to upload supporting documents, articles, rulings, decisions, certifications, or any other material useful for evaluating the request.
- 02
No interaction, no adversarial process, no human contact
The form does not offer any possibility of dialogue:
- there is no human referent,
- no response time is indicated,
- it is not possible to send further clarifications or additions,
- the user cannot reply or better justify their position.
It is a totally unilateral and closed procedure.
- 03
Automatic, standardized responses, identical for everyone
Google always responds with emails that are:
- automated,
- identical in text (same wording for different cases),
- without the name of the applicant,
- signed generically by the “Google Team”.
There is no reference to the specific case or to the content cited by the user. The answer is always the same copy and paste, even when facts, content, URLs or motivations change.
- 04
No individualized assessment
The responses show that Google does not evaluate the merits of requests:
- it does not verify the veracity of the disputed content;
- it does not balance the right to be forgotten and freedom of information;
- it does not examine whether the news is outdated;
- it does not take into account judicial or Data Protection Authority decisions.
The rejections do not indicate any specific reason, only generic phrases without any real content.
- 05
No complete removal of URLs
Even when Google removes a URL, it does not remove:
- copies of the article;
- the English versions;
- mirror pages;
- internal links;
- images;
- search suggestions (“autocomplete”).
The effectiveness of de-indexing is therefore partial or nil.