Google stops notifying publishers of ‘right to be forgotten’ removals from search results

Move after Swedish court rules that informing webmasters about delisted content is breach of privacy

Google has quietly stopped telling publishers when it has removed websites from its search results under European “right to be forgotten” rules after a ruling in a Swedish court which the search engine is applying globally.

Previously, when an individual applied to have records about them expunged under EU data protection laws, Google would notify the publisher of the original articles. Media companies, including the Guardian, are largely exempt from the regulations, but links to journalistic content can still be removed from databases including those of search engines.