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Yahoo, Bing beg 'right to be forgotten' wipers: Don't FORGET about US

Some people do actually use Microsoft's search, apparently

Amid the growing number of demands by netizens for Google to remove their out-of-date information under the controversial "right to be forgotten" ruling, it seems other search engines are keen to remind us not to forget them, too.

Earlier this year the EU's Court of Justice ruled that individuals have a "right to be forgotten" online, where information is out of date or inaccurate.

Since this May 2014 precedent, Google has received 174,226 requests for the removal of more than 600,000 URLs. So far the company has removed more than 250,000 links.

However, Google is not the only search engine to have been affected by the ruling, apparently.

Microsoft has been keen to remind internet users that some people also use its Bing search engine, and as such, it too has received demands for search engine removals: a total of 699, said the company. The first removals have now occurred with a total of 79 requests, it said.

In October, 4.43 per cent of all web searches went through Bing, with 3.82 per cent made through Yahoo, according to information site Statistica. Google has a colossal 88.7 per cent market share.

Yahoo has also begun the process of scrubbing URLs following the ruling.

A spokesman told the Wall Street Journal: “We will carefully evaluate each request with the goal of balancing the individual’s right to privacy with considerations of the public’s right to information.”

Last week the European advisory body on data protection and privacy published guidelines on the implementation of the ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling.

The Article 29 Working Group has said de-listing requests should apply to Google.com and not only to local European domains. ®

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