The EU ruling on the right to be forgotten has continued to cause controversy as being seen as a barrier to free speech. The ruling, which gives individuals the right to request irrelevant or inadequate information about themselves be removed from the search engines, has been met with reluctance, not only from Google itself but also from the press. So far, more than 250,000 requests have been submitted to Google for information to be removed.
The recent ruling in European courts over the so-called “right be forgotten” has caused a stir in the SEO and online profile management community. With a single stroke, the right to remove information on Google’s indexes has been created, and this in turn has caused a re-evaluation of whether online profile management using SEO is actually necessary.
To summarise the events of recent weeks, a European judge – in response to a Spanish resident’s request to remove some negative housing information from his online profile – ruled that internet service providers would have to follow any requests made via the law to remove unwanted information. This of course would, at first glance, render the whole concept of online profile management entirely null and void.
Online profile management has become a hot topic of digital discussion in the past few years, with the main question on everyone’s lips being whether online profile management is really necessary for businesses. In today’s modern and digitally driven society, a successful online profile has never been so crucial for businesses. Although it can often be seen as just one more facet of brand management, it should be viewed as an entirely separate and necessary process.
In today’s voracious economy, the savvy business owner knows that for his venture to survive, it must be presented in the best light possible to attract new clients and to maintain its current base for an extensive period of time. By controlling the view of their business online, company owners can ensure that they will not lose out on the potentially enormous customer base, who are looking for services on search engine results pages.
