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Read an article recently about someone in Europe who successfully sued Facebook to have their business removed from the social network. Apparently Facebook were

by blub 7y ago

Read an article recently about someone in Europe who successfully sued Facebook to have their business removed from the social network. Apparently Facebook were adding pages for businesses by themselves, including pictures and everything and were even showing ads for them. Said person was upset that they did this behind their back and asked them to take it offline, whereas FB suggested instead that he creates an account and takes over the page. He sued and won, then Facebook of course appealed and lost several times, needing to pay in the end 70.000 EUR as punishment. Now anyone (in the EU probably) can refer to this case and ask their business to be removed without having to create accounts. Maybe someone should sue Google and create a precedent.

ocdtrekkie 7y ago
The problem is that Google is so universally relied upon by consumers to find businesses, that delisting yourself from Google is shooting yourself in the foot.
- amelius 7y ago
  Shouldn't this fact ring all kinds of alarm bells at appropriate agencies, e.g. FTC?
  - ocdtrekkie 7y ago
    Apparently the DOJ is taking the reigns, actually, and is letting the FTC other tech companies in exchange: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-01/google-antitrust-scrutiny-to-fall-to-doj-under-deal-with-ftc https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-01/google-an...
  - inetknght 7y ago
    You expect the FTC to care about consumers?
sib 7y ago
Interesting. My first impression is, "That's crazy." Stating a fact ("such-and-such business is at thus-and-such address and has this phone number and here is a picture of the building") should not be removable by force. I can see the point about selling ads for it, of course. Can a business force a (physical) map company to remove the label of their business from the map? But then I remember the whole right to be forgotten and just realize things don't make sense.

by blub 7y ago

ocdtrekkie 7y ago

The problem is that Google is so universally relied upon by consumers to find businesses, that delisting yourself from Google is shooting yourself in the foot.

amelius 7y ago
Shouldn't this fact ring all kinds of alarm bells at appropriate agencies, e.g. FTC?
- ocdtrekkie 7y ago
  Apparently the DOJ is taking the reigns, actually, and is letting the FTC other tech companies in exchange: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-01/google-antitrust-scrutiny-to-fall-to-doj-under-deal-with-ftc https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-01/google-an...
- inetknght 7y ago
  You expect the FTC to care about consumers?

sib 7y ago

Interesting. My first impression is, "That's crazy." Stating a fact ("such-and-such business is at thus-and-such address and has this phone number and here is a picture of the building") should not be removable by force. I can see the point about selling ads for it, of course. Can a business force a (physical) map company to remove the label of their business from the map? But then I remember the whole right to be forgotten and just realize things don't make sense.