Consumer Watchdog Asks Google To Live Up to 'Don't Be Evil' Motto, Honor Right To Be Forgotten Requests in US
Whenever Christos Catsouras searches his last name on Google, photos of his deceased daughter Nikki’s body and the wrecked car she was in during a fatal accident in 2006 surface, Catsouras said during a Consumer Watchdog-hosted news conference in Santa…
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Monica, California, Wednesday. Having "the right to be forgotten" apply in the U.S. would be “the most amazing thing for our family and many other families out there,” Catsouras said. Photos of Nikki’s body were leaked by the California Highway Patrol and Catsouras said some individuals attach the photos and send them to him in emails. There is “absolutely no justification for these links to continue to exist,” said Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson. Removing photos or links from search engine results isn't censorship because the content still exists and such removal is possible for a company to do because Google is honoring removal requests in Europe, Simpson said. In June, Google announced it would remove revenge porn from its search results, Simpson said. “To me, some of the photos that are haunting the Catsouras family are just as abusive and harmful [as revenge porn] and I don’t understand why Google won’t remove those links,” Simpson said. Consumer Watchdog initially contacted Google asking the company to honor right to be forgotten requests in the U.S., but Simpson said Google never responded. Bing and Yahoo should also honor removal requests, Simpson said, explaining Consumer Watchdog has focused on Google because “they are the big dog” and Google more than any other search engine or company describes itself as privacy friendly. Consumer Watchdog filed a complaint with the FTC against Google last week alleging that Google’s refusal to offer Americans the right to be forgotten privacy tool that Europeans have is an unfair and deceptive practice -- a violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act (see 1507070023). Simpson said the FTC has confirmed receipt of the complaint and is considering it, which Simpson said he took to be a positive sign. Simpson added that Consumer Watchdog would drop the complaint if Google did what was right and honored removal requests. Simpson said search engines are the first step, but as society figures out what are appropriate privacy protections in the digital age, additional policy changes may be necessary. Google had no immediate comment.