New European Ruling on Privacy

Somebody out there thinks that Ovid Eastmond is a cheat.

Ovid Eastmond has used a (presumably paid) lawyer to ask Google to censor its search results already - what has been censored is unclear and could be *anything*.

It will be interesting to see if Ovid Eastmond now uses the new European Ruling on Privacy to further censor this blog - something that would be easy to do for him and would not cost anything.

It is notable that search results for Ovid Eastmond now include the line "Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe. Learn more" and so I wonder if further results have been removed. Perhaps there are several things Ovid does not want us to know about?

I shan't beat about the bush here.

Somebody thinks that Ovid Eastmond is a cheat.

Ovid Eastmond censored Google.

These two facts might be related; they may not. We don't know.

This man works with the young people of Oldham, yet there is something he has used a "Cease and Desist" notice to suppress. He has presumably paid a lawyer to send Google a notice to prevent something from appearing when his name is searched for.

I wonder why this is? It is already abundantly clear that somebody out there thinks that Ovid Eastmond is a cheat and cheats on women.

What, then, has been censored? What motivation would this man have for paying Google to censor search results?

The point of censorship is that we Simply. Don't. Know. Only Ovid Eastmond knows what he is hiding and why.

Still 2 links censored by Google

There are still 2 links being censored by Google. A search via Google brings the same result at the bottom of the first page:

"In response to a legal request submitted to Google, we have removed 2 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read more about the request at ChillingEffects.org."

The cease and desist order is still not available.

The "Badboy reports" returned briefly, then dissapeared. What is worrying about all of this is that we do not know what information that Ovid Eastmond is censoring.

It seems that one link is still from the "Cheaterville" site - but the other link is not clear at all.

It is very worrying that a person in a privileged position that works with the young people of Oldham is censoring the results of a Google search about him.

An interesting nugget of information passed by my desk today: Ovid Eastmond cheated on his girlfriend with a married woman - that much seems to be clear from the information already posted elsewhere on the internet. 

It turns out that this woman worked in Rochdale at the time.

Ovid Eastmond censored Google and it is unclear as to why.

Quite suddenly, the mysterious "badboy reports" have disappeared from the Google search results. 

As far as could be seen, these reports simply repeated one of the links that Ovid Eastmond censored Google to remove - although we don't know what Ovid Eastmond censored from Google - or why.

The below screenshot is from a link that might be censored so the person that does these things for me blurred some words out although I am not sure what they were:

This would appear to be what was detailed on the "badboy report" but I don't know for sure.

Ovid Eastmond would appear to have cheated on somebody with somebody else - although who really knows for sure?

The fact we can establish is that somebody thinks that Ovid Eastmond is a cheat and that Ovid Eastmond censored Google.

Who knows why and who knows what Ovid Eastmond is hiding?

For some reason Google are now consistently removing 2 results from a search for Ovid Eastmond as this screen capture shows:

I wonder if he has something else to hide other than the oft quoted opinion that Ovid Eastmond is a cheater?

A search on Bing.com still brings up one of the censored links. 

This is all worrying for a man in constant close contact with young people. What is he hiding?

Ovid Eastmond and the Barbara Streisand Effect

Goodness knows precisely what Ovid Eastmond censored Google for. I doubt it is because somebody has posted a story that Ovid Eastmond is a cheater as there are quite a few of those and Google has not censored that information.

However, a Google search for Mr Eastmond might be a good example of the Barbara Streisand Effect.

In a nutshell, Ms Streisand saw a picture of her house on the internet. She decided that this simply would not do and got a lawyer onto the job.

This caused a massive amount of interest in said picture and lots of people saw it.

Before the court action, only a few people knew about her house. After, The Internet knew about it.

Similarly, a search for Ovid Eastmond (it does not have to be specific, say, "Ovid Eastmond cheater") now brings up many links about Mr Eastmond and his rather colourful private life.

Of course, all of this is very interesting, but it does not answer precisely what it is that Ovid Eastmond has censored Google for. 

The danger with this sort of censorship is that it has occurred in secret. 

Mr Eastmond works with the young people of Oldham. Just what is it that he felt necessary to instruct a lawyer to force Google to censor?