“Right to be forgotten” Requests

The “Right to be forgotten" Removal Requests Report contains requests from European residents or Russian residents to filter search results about them on Bing for queries that include their names under the European Court of Justice’s 2014 "right to be forgotten" ruling or under amendments to Russia’s data protection law, respectively.

In some countries, individuals can request that search engines remove certain URLs that appear in the results for searches of the requester’s name. This is commonly referred to as the "right to be forgotten." Specific laws in Russia and Europe provide guidelines for determining if a request should be granted for designated individuals. Microsoft provides online forms to easily facilitate the receipt and processing of such requests.

Yes, when search results are removed, Bing provides users with notice at the bottom of the relevant search results page. In the case of content that is filtered upon a search of a person’s name in response to a “right to be forgotten” request, the notice appears via link at the bottom of all search results pages in the applicable market(s).

If a publisher believes links to content have been removed incorrectly from Bing search results, the publisher may contact Bing with specific information about the URL at issue. We encourage publishers to contact Bing via our Webmaster Tools, which offers many helpful resources to publishers including easy access to our webmaster email support link.

In Europe, individuals can request that search engines filter results for queries that include the applicant’s name if the results are inadequate, inaccurate, no longer relevant, or excessive. In accordance with the European Court of Justice’s ruling and related guidelines, we apply a test seeking to appropriately balance individuals’ rights to privacy with the public’s interest in freedom of expression and of access to information online. For more details, please see the Bing Help webpage on submitting privacy-related requests to block results in the EU.

For Russia, we follow the January 2016 amendments to Russia’s data protection law. The Russian law provides enumerated grounds for removal and requires that search results be removed if the applicant provides adequate proof in support of the claim. We reject requests that do not meet grounds for removal. For more detail, please see the Bing Help webpage on submitting data protection-related requests to block results for residents of the Russian Federation.

When Microsoft receives any request or demand, we seek to appropriately balance individuals’ rights to privacy with the public’s interest in freedom of expression and of access to information online.

No. We rely on each country to designate, by law, the circumstances under which search results must be removed. Because these laws are different, we apply designated criteria and processes that best enable appropriate review and processing under each.