Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, PRIVACY NEWS: Consumer Watchdog urges Google to extend “right to be forgotten” to U.S., (Oct 15, 2014)

By Brian Hammond,TRDaily

Consumer Watchdog has written to Google, Inc., requesting that the company offer the same privacy protections to users in the U.S. that it has been required to provide in Europe as a result of a May order from the European Court of Justice.

The group pointed to Google's recent transparency report as demonstrating it is capable of implementing the "right to be forgotten" policy, which is designed to balance individual privacy and the public's right to know in making a decision to remove a link in a search engine result.

“I was heartened to see—based on Google’s own numbers—that you appear able to strike this balance in Europe and it does not appear to be an undue burden on your resources,” wrote John Simpson, privacy project director at Consumer Watchdog. “Google is clearly making the Right To Be Forgotten work for its users in Europe, but that is because you must under the law. We call on you to voluntarily offer the same right to Google users in the United States.”

News: ConsumerProtection Privacy FederalTradeCommissionNews