Google's thorough indexing of web content can be problematic for privacy, making it easy for people to find information about you that you might rather stay hidden. A recent EU court ruling tackled this problem by insisting that citizens have a "right to be forgotten," which prompted Google to launch a web form that lets individuals request content be removed from the search giant's results.
Though there are hoops users have to jump through to be pulled from the results—they must provide proof of identification, an explanation of why the search result should be removed, and list a particular search result to remove—over 41,000 requests have been made since the form went online.
At present, only Europeans can request content removed and it will only be removed from European versions of Google's search page—and we don't expect this particular feature to cross over to American shores. So if you don't want potential employers to find your Facebook comment history, best to be careful and dig into resources on protecting your online reputation.
[Girl hiding dad's eyes via Shutterstock]
