Google Seeks Views in Europe on Right to be Forgotten Company Seeking Balance in Handling of Complicated Issue executives embarked Tuesday on a seven-city tour of European capitals to discuss Europes right to be forgotten, one of several fronts in which the U.S. search firm faces a mounting political firestorm in Europe. The series of meetings that began in Madrid on Tuesday stem from a surprise decision in Europes top court that requires search engines, notably Google, to allow individuals to remove some results from Web searches for their names. Since then, Google has been trying to thread a needle by applying the new rule, while expressing disagreement with it—in part, by assembling an expert panel to debate it across Europe. We need to balance the right of information against the individuals right to privacy, said Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt in opening remarks Tuesday. So we convened a panel of genuine experts whose criteria and qualifications are amazing to talk to us about this. Googles tour, which will stretch for the next two months, is part of a broader effort from the Silicon Valley firm to engage in debate in Europe, as it faces a growing wave of opposition from European politicians, regulators and rivals. On Monday, the European Commission—the EUs executive arm—said it would bend to complaints from France and Germany by pushing Google to sweeten a February deal to settle rivals allegations that Google abuses its dominance in Internet search.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 07:34:58 +0000