Stefan Kulk, a Dutch researcher specialising in the liabilities of search engine providers, said: “Google is taking decisions that are publicly relevant. As such, it is becoming almost like a court or government, but without the fundamental checks on its power.”
“Because we know so little about the cases, Google can push the discussion about the right to be forgotten in a particular direction – overdramatise, or play it down.”
He notes that the governing legal framework is in part responsible, because it allows data controllers such as Google to be in charge of the delisting process.
“To me, this stresses all the more the importance of Google being more open about the requests it receives and the processing it undertakes,” said Kulk. “The company doesn’t have to put all the info of every request online – that wouldn’t work, and is clearly against data protection law itself. But it clearly needs to provide more granular information.”