Five thousand Belgians want Google to forget them

Nearly 5,000 Belgians have asked Google to remove search results since the introduction of the 'Right to Be Forgotten' system in May, according to data from Google and a report in De Standaard.

Since May, nearly 5,000 Belgians have requested that Google remove a total of 15,000 search results, almost half of which have in fact been removed.

Google has so far received about 500,000 requests from across Europe, resulting in the deletion of 170,000 search results. Google reportedly receives as many as 1,000 removal requests per day from across Europe.

Whether or not Google grants the request is up to a panel of experts. There were, for example, several requests from bankers asking to remove information around a finance scandal, but these requests were turned down. A German rape victim, however, was granted her request to have the search engine remove all results referring to her name in the incident.