Google gets over 1,000 requests to takedown links

Google has received over 1,000 requests by people asking to have links to information about them removed.

The influx of demand comes after a European Court of Justice ruling on Tuesday. According to reports from Sky News, the search company has had demands to take down information from "a man who tried to kill his family" to a convicted cyber stalker requesting a story about him to be removed.

Also asking to be forgotten have been a paedophile, a scandal-hit former politician and a business wanting to remove posts about it cheating its customers.

Other requests have been from someone "who committed fraud on a technicality" and another who got a negative and unfounded review that nearly ruined her business.

The ruling came in response to Spaniard Mario Costeja who complained that an auction notice of his repossessed house on Google's search results infringed his privacy. The court's decision is binding with no recourse to appeal the decision. The ruling means that people can legally force search engines to remove links to information about them.

Earlier this week, Google chairman Eric Schmidt criticised the ruling, saying it was "wrong".

"A simple way of understanding what happened here is that you have a collision between a right to be forgotten and a right to know. From Google's perspective that's a balance," said Schmidt during an annual shareholders meeting.

"Google believes, having looked at the decision which is binding, that the balance that was struck was wrong."