In the wake of the landmark EU ruling last month stipulating that individuals should have the right to be forgotten by removing outdated information about themselves from search engine results, Google was soon inundated with takedown requests. While Google eventually launched a takedown form of its own, a new Web-based service called Forget.me courtesy of France-based online reputation company Reputation VIP promises to simplify this process even more, helping you discover inappropriate links about you in just two clicks. It says: “Forget.me helps you to easily find all your irrelevant, outdated, or otherwise inappropriate information that is publicly available on Google search results.”
One company’s regulatory pain is another company’s pleasure. Following the recent European Court Of Justice ruling in which Google must respect an individual’s “right to be forgotten” and remove “irrelevant” and “outdated” information that contravenes an EU privacy directive, a new service has launched to help users file a request with the search giant. Despite Google in Europe offering a fairly straight-forward “right to be forgotten” online application form of its own, Forget.me promises to make the process even easier. The free (for now) service takes a user step-by-step, helping them locate the offending URLs and word their claim correctly so it has the best chance possible to stick. From there on in, Forget.me will track your claim while it’s in Google’s pipeline of people wanting not to be found — i.e. have certain web pages, images and videos associated with a search of their name de-indexed — including alerting you when the offending URLs have been removed. Presuming, of course, Mountain View agrees with your interpretation of Eurpoean law. But actually, the company behind Forget.me has previous form in this space. It comes fromReputation VIP, the French online reputation management startup whose main line of business is to help individuals and businesses monitor and influence their online footprint.
