Google Ordered to Remove Links to Stories About Google Removing Links to Stories
gizmodo.com
gizmodo.com
Those leaks were almost certainly Google's fault. Either Google leaked the information themselves, or they leaked it indirectly. If we read the enforcement notice, it claims that Google at first complied with the order to de-index the web site which published that person's criminal record, but Google also notified that website owner. In other words, they tipped off the owner, which can be regarded as a form of defiance of the court order: agreeing to the letter of the order (performing the delisting) but not to the spirit (earnestly helping to bury that person's past).
So that might be the source of the leak; maybe the website owner's feathers were ruffled, and they reacted by gleefully leaking the story to the media. Such a reaction is so predictable that it's likely Google tipped off that website owner on purpose in order to generate the leak. Knowing that the leak will reveal details about that person, and knowing that the Google index will in turn pick up the stories resulting from the leak. Also knowing that they could refuse to delist those stories on grounds that they are are noteworthy stories of recent interest, representing the journalistic judgment of their respective news organizations that Google has no reason to second-guess.
Google should have removed that index entry quietly, without notifying the website owner. Then the removal could easily have gone unnoticed and there might now not be any stories mentioning that person.
They are now simply being asked to mop up the leak that they caused.
Whether or not you agree with this "right to be forgotten" business, you have to agree that particular twist in the plot isn't any dumber. It's just more of the same.