It is an unpleasant situation Firewalker.

Please let us know when your hear more from the ICO.

I did some more digging and found some more information about the company causing the problem, so have now written to an address for Organised Crime and Terrorism and also to an address for Cybercrime in that country. No idea if it will help but others had been advised to complain to them. It seems wrong on so many levels that anyone should have a Trust Deed with full name and address published in google searches for ever [:(] [:(!].

I guess I could engage a reputation expert to work at removing it for approximately Ôé¼1500 [?].

I cannot allow it to ruin my life, however, this is so wrong on so many levels and I feel I have to try whatever I can to have this removed before it affects my career. Currently, it is number one entry on the google search for my name and town!

I went into a trust deed which went protected in August 2013, it does not appear when i google my name!

Hi PinkVeggi

I am glad it does not appear. if I google my name it does not appear but if I google my name and town it does appear.

Trust Deeds used to be advertised in the Edinburgh Gazette and google could pick up the information for a period of five years. The Romanian company I refer to 'gets' the information from the Gazette and Google and stores it, then it appears in google search indefinitely.

I understand that now the Trust Deeds are not recorded/advertised in the Edinburgh Gazette; and only the AIB, so it does not appear on a google search and consequently the Romanian company does not 'capture' the information.

My Trust Deed dates fell in the period when they were advertised in the Gazette. Lucky White Heather!

That is my understanding of it, anyway.

AN UPDATE

I have now received a response from the ICO regarding the (mis)use of my information gleaned from the Edinburgh gazette and published indefinitely by the Romanian company. I have copied most of it below. They seem overwhelmed by the scale of the enquiries. My enquiry from August has now been allocated a number and allocated to a team. From there it is to be allocated to a case worker and from there it is considered after they have considered how to approach the judgement. So anyone dealing with the ICO on this subject would be sensible to expect a delay of some time before getting an answer.

In the meantime, no response from the recommended e-mail addresses I wrote to in Romania.

Extract from ICO response ......................

The ICO is currently actively considering the implications of the European Court of Justice judgement in relation to removal of search results. This is taking some time as we need to develop criteria and guidance on removals, including public interest considerations, and also consult with data protection regulators across the EU to ensure a consistent approach.

Until we have completed this work we are unable to provide an outcome in any of the cases submitted to us on this matter. However, please be assured that we recognise the importance to you of the matters you have raised with us and will endeavour to consider your specific case and make a decision on it as soon as we have completed our work on our approach to implementing the judgement.

I am sorry that I cannot yet inform you as to the action we are taking in your case. However, I am hopeful that we should be in a position to assign your case to a case officer within the next month and consider the specific matters you have raised. At that point we will provide you with a further update.

WARNING - THIS IS LONG BUT IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE CONCERNED ABOUT TRUST DEED BEING AVAILABLE ON GOOGLE SEARCHES INDEFINITELY.
AND ON THE GLOBE 24H WEBSITE.

Well, after raising the enquiry in July of last year, I now have a response from the ICO. I realize it has been a very challenging time for them to interpret and determine the factors relating to google search results.

I am pleased with the feedback today regarding google, although how much work I need to do to ensure it is actioned is another question. Here is some extracts from the very long response. The first part relates to Google's refusal to remove the link which was out-dated and was being used for an indeterminate time to publish details of my Trust Deed.

"Google refused the request on the basis that the content on the URL is published and provided to search engines, on an ongoing basis, by a government body or agency. In fact, this is not the case, as the information no longer appears as a link to The Gazette in the list of results from a search on your name.

We have developed a list of factors we will take into account when considering concerns from individuals whose requests have been refused. Further information about our criteria is available at:

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/internet-search-results/

Our decision

We have considered the factors which are relevant to your removal request and we have decided it is unlikely that the search results comply with the DPA.

This is because the information is being made available through a search result for longer than necessary.

We understand from your correspondence with The Gazette that although the information is retained permanently on The Gazette's own website, links from search engines to the official website are removed after 4 years and 11 months.

The information will continue to appear on your credit report until 6 years from commencement of the Trust Deed, so will continue to be available for lenders to make informed decisions about any credit application.

The information will also, of course, be permanently available to anyone visiting and searching The Gazette's website directly"

AND WITH REGARD TO THE HUGE CONCERN I HAVE ABOUT THE ROMANIAN WEBSITE PUBLISHING THE INFORMATION FOR EVER MORE ...... extract of reply from ICO.

" The website from which the information is currently available following a search on your name ÔÇÿgazette.uk.globe24h.com' is based in Romania and is not an official government website. The official website for the information is ÔÇÿthegazette.co.uk'.

You have also expressed concerns about the potential for identity theft should you provide the further information required by ÔÇÿgazette.uk.globe24h.com' to facilitate the removal of the information from the website itself.

We will write to Google to explain the view we have reached in your case, and it is our expectation that it will remove the results."

I AM UNSURE WHAT THE THIRD AND SECOND LAST PARAGRAPH MEANS IN REALITY. IT SIMPLY STATES MY CONCERN AND THEN GOES ON TO SAY IT WILL WRITE TO GOOGLE. BOTH THESE FACTORS ARE SEPARATE AND LINKED.
IT MAY STILL MEAN THAT IT APPEARS ON THE 24H WEBSITE AND I HAVE TO TAKE OTHER ACTION SEPARATELY.

I hope this is helpful update to other members. And I hope it makes sense [:D]

That appears to be extremely good news Firewalker, as well as being a fair outcome.

Regarding the paragraphs you're uncertain about my reading is as follows:

1 - Google's assertion that it is providing a link (in its search results) to official government information is factually incorrect. It's providing a link to a Romanian website.

2 - The ICO appears to agree that it might be unsafe for you to follow the removals process provided by that Romanian website.

3 - They're therefore going to instruct Google to remove the link to that website from their search results.

Basically, if I'm correct and Google do as they're told, your information will remain on the Romanian website but you will not be able to find the entry directly from a Google search. This is the same situation as exists with the Edinburgh Gazette website (though in this instance that's because the Edinburgh Gazette has taken the right steps to ensure that this no longer shows up in search results).

Ah - thank you for that. I know that the Romanian site captures the information and keeps it, but it makes sense if the google link is disabled, that it should not or might not appear.

Fingers crossed. I was pleased to read their decision, however, I also noted in their response that sometimes it is necessary to take out a civil action to get this resolved. Let's hope for successful response from Google and successful disappearance from the google search!

It does also appear in a Bing search - but on page 5 or so. That may be my next port of call after I see how google goes.

Will let you know in a few weeks if there is any progress.

Well done Firewalker!

I'm reading it the same way as TDA, and it looks like a great result.

You deserve to be really proud of yourself for achieving this. I'm certainly giving you a 'cheers!' for it.

I agree Candlewick.

Firewalker... what you've achieved here could help a lot of people in the future.

Regarding Bing, it probably is much less of an issue. For example - only 5% of the total traffic that visits this website comes directly from Bing (2% from Yahoo). We're a nation of Google users.

I'd think the same logic would apply however. You could contact Bing and Yahoo with the information that the ICO has given you to see what they'll do.

Bing: https://www.bing.com/webmaster/tools/eu-privacy-request

Yahoo: If there's a page on this subject, they've made it pretty hard to find.

Thanks Candlewick and TDA. It took a lot of research and evidence from the Romanian site and articles about them throughout the world, and printed documents (so much I had to send it in three e-mails to them!). It has taken several calls and follow up e-mails to see the progress so I am delighted they decided in my favour.

It just seemed so inherently unfair - and it will be so for others who were caught in the timing of their trust deed.

I will reserve clinking glasses until Google agrees and the information disappears from the search! However, it is great that the ICO have acknowledged the issues surrounding this site. My 6 years is up by September this year, (assuming they are using that as one of the times for keeping the link)so by the time google deals with the decision it will probably be closer to then. I will keep an eye on it.

And in the meantime, if any members are interested in pursuing their own situation I am happy to share anything that will help. It was actually another member who alerted me to this in his/her posting.

PS: I appealed twice to Google, after Google's initial decision, using the same argument the ICO has now ruled agreed with.

Update - I did a check this morning with Yahoo and Bing - and it is not appearing anywhere (yahoo - excuse the pun!), so I suspect when the Gazette dropped the posting at 4 years and ll months (last year), it must have disappeared. Whereas google still has the globe24h still showing as number 1 in the hit parade - for the moment!

That's certainly very good if Yahoo and Bing aren't prominently displaying pages from globe24h in their search results.