Google has granted its first set of "right to be forgotten" requests.

Google has sent emails to those whose removal requests have been approved.

A Google spokesman said: "This is a new process for us. Each request has to be assessed individually and we're working as quickly as possible to get through the queue. We'll continue to work with data protection authorities and others as we implement this ruling."


What brought on the requests was a 1998 case where a man attempted to have a newspaper article about his Social Security debts scrubbed from Google search results. The case went to court. Google won the appeal which stated that search engines are not required to remove such links, provided that publication of the data is legal.

That case was overturned.

According to Reuters, when the company launched the request form, Google received 12,000 applications. By the end of the week, the company was buried under 41,000 appeals.