Tips for legal removal through Google

[Yack]

I've worked on link removal/supression before, but this might be the first time I have a legitimate legal claim for removal. The information posted online is protected by a non-disclosure agreement between a city government and a former employee.

Will Google remove based on that or will they have to get a court order? Any tricks for requests? The online legal form looks worrisome - as if you have to be a lawyer to submit links through their form. Should I email their legal team instead?

If not, would C+Ds suffice or should we bring in a lawyer?

Normally, I write articles and send them through a press release service. The stories get picked up and bump the links off the first few pages. Then I write up a different article with a neutral/positive spin and ask the site to swap them out, effectively removing the articles without much hassle.

If you've gone the legal route before, I'd appreciate your advice. Thank you.

 

[Dayclone]

I would say you would need a court order to remove any reviews on Google. There's a formal process for that for your legal team to submit a request to Google.

Here's a link that might help you: https://support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905

and: https://support.google.com/legal/answer/3110420?hl=en

I hope that helps.

 

[Yack]

Does anyone know how long it's taking Google to get back to people on removal requests?

 

[Sephrata]

Does anyone know how long it's taking Google to get back to people on removal requests?

It can take weeks.

Where has the information been posted? Does the former employee have control of the site where the information is posted?

 

[Yack]

No. It's all posted on network and newspaper websites.

 

[deedee1whoa]

Normally, I write articles and send them through a press release service. The stories get picked up and bump the links off the first few pages. Then I write up a different article with a neutral/positive spin and ask the site to swap them out, effectively removing the articles without much hassle.

If you have the time/patience, could you please explain this whole paragraph?
So, you're trying to remove the competition and basically manage it how you want or...?

 

[Sephrata]

No. It's all posted on network and newspaper websites.

I don't think you will have much hope in Google delisting the links as the NDA is between the city government and a former employee.

 

[Yack]

If you have the time/patience, could you please explain this whole paragraph?
So, you're trying to remove the competition and basically manage it how you want or...?

Not competition so much as removing negative stories.

One of my clients had a brother who was killed by police. Every time you did a search for their family name and town, the story would come up. I wrote a fun, evergreen article I thought papers would want to publish, quoted the family throughout and sent it out through a wire service. A handful of papers picked it up, and those links quickly pushed the old story off the front page -- EXCEPT for a large genealogy website. I wrote them and asked they replace his obit page with one that didn't include info on the shooting, and they took it down instead.

Another example, a little different:

The owner of a car dealership was arrested last year for identity theft, but almost all of the articles published said he was arrested for fraud. I wrote a corrected version that sounded a little better for the client and asked the sites to swap them out and note the corrections.

Most newspapers won't remove a story once it's published, but they might change it. Others will just post a correction box on the story, which sucks. To encourage them to swap it out, put, "UPDATED:" at the start of your article. You can ask that they change the title to reflect the changes. I have been moderately successful with this so far, just not with any bigger news outlets. I'm trying to get an NBC affiliate to change one of their stories. Things are not going well.

I don't think you will have much hope in Google delisting the links as the NDA is between the city government and a former employee.

Well, shucks.

 

[deedee1whoa]

Oh, I finally get it now. So, you're the reputation police!
Sounds hard but cool, good for you.

 

[r1004]

Well and option is to demand and ask the judge for a preventive Google removal.

Demanding and showing the demand to Google, just don't work. Or it didn't work to me.

Good luck

 

[Sephrata]

Well and option is to demand and ask the judge for a Google removal.

On what basis would you ask the judge to remove the news articles?

 

[r1004]

Hello, and sorry for my English.

I hope I understood the thread.

If the articles are punishing your company, and you can demand the articles, the first thing to do is to ask the judge for a preventive rermoval in Google. Do not wait until the judgement ends, can take years.

If you do so, in one month you have it.

Is an option, that's what's my lawyer advised us. I didn't follow my lawyer advise, so I don't know if it works.

Showing the demand to Google don't work.

First thing to do is to talk to Google

 

[Yack]

Going on 8 weeks.