Citing the "right to be forgotten," Belgians are among the highest claimants for their data to be removed from search engine results, a recent study by Dutch cybersecurity company Surfshark shows.
Between 2015 and 2021, Google and Microsoft Bing received over one million requests from people who wanted their data removed search engine results, half of them from Western European countries. Numbering almost 26,000 requests, Belgium was the ninth-most represented.
"One of the reasons for the rise in 'right to be forgotten' requests in 2020 could be the Covid-19 pandemic. As many daily activities became virtual, people became more conscious of their digital hygiene and reviewing their privacy online," said Gabriele Kaveckyte, Privacy Counsel at Surfshark.
"At the same time, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enforcement accelerated and continues to enforce online privacy as a fundamental human right to this day," she added.
From personal info to criminal records
The right to be forgotten allows people to ask web pages to delist queries related to their name from European search engine result pages. It applies to countries covered by GDPR (the EU and the EEA) and other European countries that have adopted similar laws, such as the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
Those who wish to be "forgotten" by search engines have a variety of personal and professional information, sometimes with relation to criminal activity.
Between 2015 and 2021, France submitted the most requests: some 255,600 – accounting for nearly a quarter of all those made over this period. Around 176,100 requests came from Germany and 125,300 from the United Kingdom, accounting for around 17% and 12% of the total, respectively. When the Covid-19 pandemic started in 2020, the number of overall cases rose by nearly 30%.
When it comes to request density (the number of requests per 10,000 people), Estonia came first with 53 requests/10,000 – more than 2.5 times the average. It was followed by France with 40, and the Netherlands with 32.
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Belgium sits 12th with 22 requests per 10,000 people. The country that submitted the fewest requests per 10,000 people over the years is Bulgaria, with around six, which is over three times lower than the average of all the examined countries.
In the requests submitted to Google, 4,009,729 web pages were included. On average, requesters asked to remove four web pages per request from its search results on average – which falls in line with the average number from Belgians.
In general, around half of the pages asked to be delisted from Google could not be classed into a specific category, and nearly 17% fell under professional information (contained a requester's work address, contact information, or general information about their business activities).
Around 10% of web pages referenced the requester concerning crimes, including those within their professional field. Around 6% contained the requester's personal information, such as their home address, residence, or other contact information, and images and videos of the individual.
