Users of the internet in Europe have a special privilege according to which Google will eliminate the irrelevant search results once they are outdated, giving people a chance to control their online reputation. Now, an American Consumer Group is seeking similar rights for the American users.

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According to QZ, a consumer group in America is asking the Federal Trade Commission to increase the privacy protection for the American internet users. As part of this deal, the group wants the government to instruct Google to delete irrelevant results once they are outdated. This is expected to give people more control over their online reputation.

Last year, European internet users earned this privilege when the court ordered Google to get rid of irrelevant and outdated results, if requested by the users to do so. The Consumer Watchdog in America has filed a formal complaint with the agency on Tuesday and is seeking clarification in this regard.

In its letter to the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Watchdog has asked the supreme authority to investigate the matter and take quick action. Arguing its case, the consumer group is saying that earlier in the not so digital age, if people did something foolish, it was soon forgotten. But, in the digital era, everything is propagated like wild fire. This ends up infringing the level of privacy of the users to a certain extent. Therefore, it is the right of the customer to choose to be forgotten in such situations; however, reports indicate that Google is unwilling to extend the benefit of this practice beyond where it already exists.

Additionally, a report on Washington Post quoted John Simpson, the director of the organization's Privacy Project, where he said that on one side, Google said that it was concerned about users privacy and is willing to walk the extra mile to protect it, its inability to grant American users the right to be forgotten clearly violates its statement. Also, this violation, puts Google on the line of fault as it meets the Federal Trade Commission's definition of unfair practices, raising questions on the ethics of the company.

TagsGoogle America update, Google America