Between 2015 and 2021, more than 1-million”right to be forgotten” requests were submitted to Google and Microsoft Bing, with half of the requests being from Western European countries.
When the Covid-19 pandemic started, “right to be forgotten” cases rose by nearly 30% in 2020, according to a Surfshark study analysing the requests.
Overall, French requests accounted for nearly a fourth of all submitted requests, while Estonia had the most requests per 10 000 people. Eastern European countries exercised their “right to erasure” the least.
The “right to be forgotten” allows individuals to ask web pages to delist queries related to their name from European search engine result pages. It applies to countries covered by GDPR (the EU and the EEA) and some other European countries that have adopted similar laws, like the UK and Switzerland. Information about requesters within these webpages widely varies, from personal and professional information to connections with criminal activity.
From 2015 to 2021, 1 066 274 “right to be forgotten” or “right to erasure” requests were submitted to Google and Bing. Of the two search engines, the vast majority (95.8%) of requests were delivered to Google. 2015 marked the first full year the policy had been in place, where 169 200 requests were submitted throughout the year.
After 2015, “right to be forgotten” requests gradually decreased until 2020. Cases rose nearly 30% in 2020, totaling 161 300. For example, Cyprus and Portugal submitted almost three times more requests in 2020 than the previous year. 2021 saw an additional 15% increase across the board, with an all-time high of 185 700 requests across the analyzed countries.
“One of the reasons for the rise in the “right to be forgotten” requests in 2020 could be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic. As many daily activities became virtual, it encouraged people to be more conscious of their digital hygiene and review their privacy online,” says Gabriele Kaveckyte, privacy counsel at Surfshark. “At the same time, GDPR enforcement accelerated and continues to enforce online privacy as a fundamental human right to this day.”
France submitted the most “right to be forgotten” requests between 2015 and 2021, with 255 600 requests accounting for nearly a fourth of all requests submitted over this period. 176.1k requests came from Germany, and 125.3k from the UK, with each country accounting for around 17% and 12% of the total, respectively. Requests submitted by these three countries comprise around half of all “right to be forgotten” requests submitted between 2015 and 2020. All other countries account for less than 10% of the total each.
Regarding request density (that is, requests per 10 000 people), Estonia comes first with 53 requests per 10 000 people (more than 2,5-times higher than average). France takes the second position with 40, and the Netherlands takes third with 32 requests per 10 000 people. Bulgaria submitted the least requests per 10 000 people over the years, with around six, over three times lower than the average of all the examined countries.
Western and Northern Europe have the highest request density, with 28 and 21 requests per 10 000 people, respectively. Southern Europe issued 16 requests and Eastern Europe issued eight requests per 10 000 people.
A total of 4 009 729 web pages were included in the requests submitted to Google over 2015-2021. For Google, requesters asked to remove four web pages per request from its search results on average.
Around half of the pages asked to be delisted from Google couldn’t be classed into a specific category, and nearly 17% fell under professional information (contained a requester’s work address, contact information, or general information about their business activities).
Around one in 10 webpages referenced the requester concerning crimes, including those within their professional field. Around 6% contained the requester’s personal information, such as their home address, residence, or other contact information, as well as images and videos of the individual.