Surrey Comet's college fundraising fiasco story among latest 'right-to-be-forgotten' Google requests

Hillcroft College

South Bank

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Surbiton.com: July 4, 2014 - 5:00am

Mystery surrounds an attempt to wipe from search engine Google a Surrey Comet story into Hillcroft College losing more than £400,000 on a disastrous fundraising concert.

The 2010 report has been partially wiped from Google’s search results after a request under new controversial “right to be forgotten” EU laws. Press freedom campaigners have described the new law as the start of an era of web censorship and as a way of people or organisations airbrushing their internet history. The Comet has made unsuccessful attempts to contact all of the people mentioned in the 2010 article including former principal June Ireton, current senior staff members Stacey Morgan and Frances Marsden and events promoter Dave Clarke. Former mayor Ian McDonald said it was not him. Google will not say who wanted it removed.

He said on Thursday afternoon a few hours later he had not had a chance to speak to staff to find if they had made the request. Hillcroft, in South Bank, Surbiton, lost £443,000 on the Sandown concert that flopped after selling only 3,000 tickets when 14,000 people were expected to show up.

Google has received tens of thousands of requests from people across Europe in the few days since the ruling. It says results that are “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed” can be removed.

http://www.surreycomet.co.uk/news/11319172.Surrey_Comet_s_college_fundraising_fi...

SurreyComet.co.uk

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