Bing has announced on its blog that it is to alter its “right to be forgotten” rules. Currently, when a 'right to be forgotten' (or RTBF) request is received by the search engine, the page is simply removed from “all applicable European versions of Bing” for a search for the name in question. However, in the future, the search engine will use the user's location in order to de-list “the relevant URL on all versions of Bing, including Bing.com”, for anyone searching for the “forgotten” name in the country where the RTBF request came from. The alteration to the rules means that the “right to be forgotten” will now effect search results on any version of Bing, even non-European ones, if the search itself comes from an affected country. Bing said in the post that the decision was made in order to reflect “recent developments in the European data protection regulatory environment”.
