Stefan Mileschin

Search engine outfit Google has agreed to attempt to comply with European "right to be forgotten" rules and will forget all about Europe.

A service through which European citizens can request that links to what they deem as objectionable material be taken off search results.

The world's largest internet search engine, which processes more than 90 percent of all web searches in Europe, has made available a webform through which people can submit their requests, but stopped short of specifying when it would remove links that meet the criteria for being taken down.

Google has convened a committee of senior Google executives and independent experts to hatch out a long-term plan to dealing with what's expected to be a barrage of requests from the region.

"In implementing this decision, we will assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public's right to know and distribute information," reads the webform that Google made available yesterday .

Google says in the form that when evaluating requests, it will consider whether the results include outdated information about a person, as well as whether there's a public interest in the information, such as information about professional malpractice, criminal convictions and the public conduct of government officials.

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