Microsoft Closer To Removing European ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Requests

Microsoft says it will “soon” launch a form to process requests to remove information on its search engine Bing under the so-called “Right to Be Forgotten” ruling in Europe.

“We’re continuing to work out the details on how we plan to implement the recent ruling by the European Court of Justice and expect to launch a form soon for EU residents to submit requests,” a spokesperson for the company said.

Microsoft’s commitment to move forward with a form quickly is a shift from its previous stance. In the month following the European Union court’s May ruling, Microsoft said it was reviewing how the court’s decision should be implemented. The ruling gives individuals the right to request the removal of information that appears in search engine’s results in the EU for queries of their names.

Google, which controls about 90 percent of Europe’s search engine market, acted much more quickly. It posted a form to submit requests in late May and began to remove links in late June. So far, the search engine has received more than 70,000 requests.

Microsoft and other smaller search engines like Ask.com and DuckDuckGo are also subject to the court’s ruling. DuckDuckGo did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Valerie Combs, a spokeswoman for Ask.com, said its process was in development.

“Our legal and compliance team is in the process of developing policies and procedures around the very limited number of requests we’ve received to date, which we are handling on a case by case basis,” she wrote in an email.