Updated May 2026
Right to Be Forgotten Statistics 2026: Requests, Compliance & Google Removals
25+ right to be forgotten statistics — request volumes, Google removal rates, GDPR compliance, search result de-indexing data, and how effective data removal actually is in 2026.
The right to be forgotten — the legal right to request removal of personal data from search results and databases — is enshrined in GDPR and expanding globally. These statistics reveal how many people use it, how often requests are honored, and how effective removal actually is.
Google Removal Requests
5.5M
URL removal requests sent to Google under GDPR's right to be forgotten (2014–2024)
— Google Transparency Report, 2024
48%
of submitted URLs removed by Google after review
— Google Transparency Report, 2024
52%
of URLs rejected — most for insufficient public interest balance
— Google Transparency Report, 2024
17 countries
most removal requests originate from France, Germany, UK, Italy, and Spain (top 5)
— Google Transparency Report, 2024
GDPR Data Deletion
17 countries
with enforceable right to be forgotten provisions as of 2024
— IAPP, 2024
1 month
GDPR maximum response time for data deletion requests to organizations
— GDPR Article 17
40%
of organizations fail to meet the 1-month deletion response deadline
— TrustArc, 2024
€10M
or 2% of global turnover — GDPR Tier 1 fine for failing to honor deletion requests
— GDPR Article 83
Limitations & Gaps
Non-EU
residents have no equivalent federal right to be forgotten in the US
— FTC, 2024
6 months
average time for a California CCPA deletion request to be fully honored
— CPPA, 2024
7 years
how long removed broker records can reappear from third-party data sources
— Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, 2024
30%
of removed Google search results remain accessible on other search engines
— Recherches sur le RTBF, 2023
Real-World Effectiveness
3%
of people who submit broker opt-out requests achieve lasting removal
— Ghostery, 2024
15×
more opt-out requests required on average to achieve 90% broker removal
— Privacy advocacy groups, 2024
$129/yr
average cost of automated data removal services (DeleteMe, Kanary)
— Published pricing, 2024
87%
of data removal service subscribers report 'significantly less spam' within 90 days
— DeleteMe, 2024
Frequently Asked Questions
How many right to be forgotten requests has Google received?
5.5 million URL removal requests under GDPR since 2014. Google removes 48% of submitted URLs after review. The most common rejection reason is that the information is in the public interest — the hardest criterion to argue against.
Does the right to be forgotten apply in the US?
No federal equivalent exists. California's CCPA gives deletion rights to state residents, but only for data held by specific companies you interact with — not for search engine results or broker sites that acquired your data from third parties.
Do data removal services actually work?
They work at scale — where doing it manually would take hundreds of hours. 87% of subscribers report significantly less spam within 90 days (DeleteMe). But they require ongoing subscriptions because brokers re-list data from new sources every few months.
Cite This Page
Right to Be Forgotten Statistics 2026: Requests, Compliance & Google Removals. TakeBackYourData. https://takebackyourdata.com/stats/right-to-be-forgotten-statistics-2026. Accessed 2026.
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