Marcel van Marrewijk's Blog, page 172
February 1, 2016
Data Blog #4. Out with the Old, in with the New
The current EU data protection directive stems from 1995. With an industry that is changing right before our very eyes, this document is perhaps a bit outdated. That is why, back in 2012, the European Commission put forth a proposal to ‘update’ the legislation concerning data protection. These plans were further elaborated upon in December 2015. It is now clear that the new system of EU data protection will consist of the ´General Data Protection Regulation´ (for citizens to be better able to control their own data) and the ‘Data Protection Directive’ (for police and criminal justice sector). A more coordinated and up-to-date system of rules and regulations regarding data protection will provide everyone in the EU with the same rights, protection and possibly save businesses a total of €2.3 billion per year. The main aim of these reforms is to help Europe transition towards a Digital Single Market, making the EU a breeding ground for technological innovation. Check out this short video on the Digital Single Market.
Contrary to vivid speculation, the EU claims the new body of data protection will benefit businesses instead of harm them. The current Data Protection Directive is a rather fragmented document, there are a lot of areas in which national legislation has to be applied since EU legislation is simply missing. The new Directive and Regulation will ensure that the same rules are applied throughout the entire EU, leading to higher legal certainty and consistency, while simultaneously decreasing the administrative burden on businesses. The new legislation puts more responsibility and accountability in the hands of data center operators. They are responsible for the protection and safeguarding of personal data in compliance with EU legislation. It is their responsibility to notify and remind their users of their rights, and if there is a data breach operators will be required to notify it to the Commission. Although the fines for breaching the new EU rules will increase significantly, the Commission expects the new data protection regulation to save businesses an estimated €2.3 billion per year (€130 million in paperwork alone)!
The reform will also have an impact on the average EU citizen. First of all the ‘type’ of legislation is very different. The current data protection is a directive, meaning the EU proposes it and it is subsequently in the hands of Member States implement it in their national legislation. The new data protection legislation (the one most relevant to citizens) will be a ‘regulation’ which means it will automatically, and without question, be implemented in the national legislation of each Member State. Now, no matter where you are from in the EU, every citizen will have exactly the same level of data protection. Additionally, the Commission’s press release states that “The reform will allow people to regain control of their personal data.” For full text click here. In essence, this implies easier access to, and transfer of, your personal data, a stronger legal base for ‘the right to be forgotten’ and, last but not least, the mandatory obligation on companies to inform you and the national authorities in case your personal data has been hacked.
All in all the new data protection legislation sounds pretty promising. Increased protection for citizens at a lower cost for businesses, sounds nearly too good to be true. I guess we will find out in 2017/2018!
For more information: This is an interesting top-10 of changes that will take place with the implementation of the new Data Protection Regulation.
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January 29, 2016
Improve your Customer Journey with Event Driven Communication
By Vincent Ariëns – Seats2meet
Marketing Automation, sounds like another fancy way for people to avoid doing hard work and using technology to tempt customers into purchasing a product. But is that actually what it’s about? At Seats2meet.com we believe in the power of new technologies, but our end game is something totally different. We aim to create an ecosystem which facilitates people, time and again, to become a better version of themselves, for themselves. Our vision is clearly explained in the book Society 3.0. It is in this frame of mind that I will share with you the way S2M uses Event Driven Communication (Marketing Automation), how we utilize Artificial Intelligence to so do and how you, yourself, can easily implement it in your organization.
Previous posts have illustrated the importance of putting your customer and their interests at the heart of your strategy, and that this should be the starting point for any business. I would like to take this a step further; the customer is not the beginning or the end or your strategy, but rather an integral part of your organization. They are not ‘consumers’, but ‘prosumers’. They are people that actively participate in- and contribute to your organization. We want to serve these people to the best of our abilities and guide them through our website as easily as possible. This is exactly where Event Driven Communication plays an important role!
Unexpected Relevance
Before we proceed, let’s take a step back. At S2M we want to help transform our users to become a better version of themselves, for themselves. This is in line with Pine & Gilmore’s ‘Theory of Progression of Economic Value’ (Experience Economy. Updated version, 2011). In order to achieve this we have to make sure that our customer journey contains an added value, one that people are unable to get anywhere else. In this way they can forge a bond with your organization and/or brand. At S2M we chose to work with the concept of serendipity, you can find more about serendipity in this NY Times article. Every day we try to connect people to other relevant professionals, people they don’t know yet but are relevant to them. The customer journey is a crucial element in guiding our users through this process, and Event Driven Communication is a key factor.
We have tried to map this as coherently as possible, the image below is a schematic guideline of how we do this.
As you can see the most important thing is offering unexpected and relevant matches by means of, as we refer to it, the ‘Serendipity Machine’. In essence we offer automated communication, adapted to every individual’s needs. This consequently leads to a transformation of our users where they become a better version of themselves, for themselves.
Working with AI (Artificial Intelligence)
This is where the previously mentioned technology plays a role. This marks the limit of our capabilities and to proceed we need the algorithmic powers of a computer to automate the communication. It starts off with the collection of user data. For example: every time someone checks in we ask the person what he or she is working on. We also use people’s online behavior (e.g. their attendance at an event) as input for a so-called ‘Graph Database’. This graph represents the network of people at S2M and the combination of their knowledge and activities. This graph is self-learning and adjusts dynamically. It could be the case that the connection between ‘Marketing’ and ‘Big Data’ is strong in the beginning of January, but that this gets overtaken by the connection ‘Marketing Automation’ and ‘Big Data’ later that month. This simply implies that the content moves and adapts over time based on the relevant content of the S2M network. By using all these connections in smart and innovative ways we are able to provide content that is specific and relevant to our users.
Event Driven Communication
We see that the future of online communication and marketing is becoming more and more context-driven. With the increasing use of Big Data (the Graph Database described above is an example of this) it is possible to provide automated profiles that communicate in a personal way to the individual. However, before you get to this point you will have to go through the basic procedures first. How would you go about this?
The average communications class starts off with telling students that 70% of human communication is non-verbal. The past couple of years have taught me that this is no different on the web, but it is important to strongly emphasize event driven communication. Event driven communication is a form of communication that is triggered by a user’s action, whether verbal or non-verbal. However, if a person receives bad news you can approximate their responses based on their facial expression. How can you translate this type of non-verbal communication to the web? This is very difficult to do since you cannot ‘read’ emotions on a website (not yet, at least). It is therefore important that you have this non-verbal event driven communication up and running.
It might sound difficult, but it is actually rather easy. Just think of all the instances in which your phone or website provides feedback to the user. When I correctly fill in my information online a green check mark appears. Great, this means I did something right. If not, then a red X appears. This is also the moment where you can include a link with more information for your customer to read through. If you use these insights in all your customer journeys you will probably see some (small) improvements immediately!
In order to achieve this we, inspired by Martin van Kranenburg (sinds1998.nl), started ‘Conversion Friday’. Every Friday we spend some time doing these quick wins, which, all together, account for 70% of the communication with our users!
Verbal vs. Non-verbal
Apart from the non-verbal communication discussed above, you also have verbal event driven communication. This can be very simple things such as a verification email after booking a hotel room. You can change the settings of such automated programs, for example by changing the time intervals. Perhaps a couple of days after you leave, the hotel will send you an email asking for feedback. You can use AI to make a person’s stay more relevant, for example by letting them know which other people are staying at the hotel that might be relevant for them to meet, or which places and restaurants in the neighborhood are definitely worth checking out.
You can imagine that such an event driven communication track can lead to an astonishing number of ‘if-this-then-that’ opportunities for your customers. Start at the beginning and make it clear to your customers when and where they can expect non(verbal) communication, whether it is at an event, in your app or on your website. When you have done all this you can start experimenting with AI (event driven communication) so you can really create personalized communication for each of your users. That’s pretty cool right?!
This article is directly translated from Marketing Facts: Verbeter je Customer Journey met Event-Driven Communicatie
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January 28, 2016
Data Blog #3. The story of the NSA, Safe Harbour and Guinness
It has been widely acknowledged that there are stark differences the EU and US with regards to data protection and privacy issues. But imagine that a company, let’s say Google, has its data storage center in the US where it stores the data of all its users. When operating within the EU borders Google has to adhere to EU privacy laws, but a data storage center in the US is outside the jurisdiction of the EU and therefore it cannot dictate how the data is treated over there. Due to the differences between the EU and US on how this data should be protected and valued (remember the whole ‘NSA is watching you-scandal’?), the EU is very skeptical towards these data centers located in the US.
This skepticism resulted in the annulment of the EU-US Safe Harbour Decision. The Safe Harbour Decision made data transfers between the EU and US possible by stating that the US data protection was up to the 1995 EU data protection standards. This meant that US firms were allowed to collect data from citizens in the EU, transfer it to the US and store it in a data center there.
Recent NSA scandals and a subsequent suit filed by and Irish legal scholar led the European Commission and EU Court to initiate investigations into the Safe Harbour Decision. They found that, by US interpretation, US rules and regulations concerning data protection always trump the Safe Harbor Decision. This implies that when there is a conflict between the Safe Harbour Decision and US requirements, US firms had to comply to the US rules and regulations. With everything that was going on at the time (NSA surveillance programs, data breaches) the EU Court decided that allowing US companies to store data in the US was no longer an option. Actually, the EU Court stated that the way the US handled the data “compromi[zed] the essence of the fundamental right to respect for private life.” That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it? Full text click here.
Since the annulment most US companies have moved their data centers to….Ireland. Why Ireland, of all places? Perhaps they got lost and were hoping to find a Guinness brewery in the neighborhood? But alas, that does not seem to be the reason. Instead, as you have probably imagined, the reason is more sensible. US companies prefer to establish themselves (and their data centers) in Ireland due to the low corporate tax rate. Additional factors are the stable political and environmental climate resulting in a relatively risk-free investment. The well-educated and young workforce, in combination with a government that is willing to help with administrative and financial issues makes Ireland the #1 EU-place for US IT and software companies.
The data of Seats2meet.com is stored either in the Netherlands or Ireland with third party storage centers (e.g. Amazon). Since they are both in EU territory they automatically comply to EU rules and regulations concerning data protection. This also applies to the data of non-EU users. Even though our data is stored with third party storage centers, they do not have access to that data.
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Think different!
Think different! & De Inspiratie Plaats.
In een notendop.
On-rust
Een paar jaar geleden nam ik afscheid van mijn laatste werkgever. Natuurlijk niet van de ene op de andere dag. Er ging wel ‘een procesje’ aan vooraf. Van zelfstandig schap naar loondienst, van vrijheid van ruimte en handelen naar ergens toch een stukje conformeren aan de ‘club’. Een van de laatste projecten: schrijf een strategisch HR beleidsplan voor de komende 5 a 10 jaar. Voor de meest efficiënte en effectieve inzet van onze resources. En ook wat daarvoor nodig is in kaders en structuren en meetinstrumenten.
Mijn hele wezen protesteerde… En toch…ik deed een poging. Natuurlijk niets mis met kaders en een soort basis beleid…maar ergens knaagde er wel iets.
Bij de laatste reorganisatie waar ik bij betrokken was, nam ik zelf afscheid. Heerlijk! Dag knellende kaders, dag verstikkende structuren. Welkom mensen. Terug naar echte aandacht geven. Zonder restricties kunnen vragen: Wie ben jij en wat heb jij nodig. Om echt tot bloei te komen. (En dat begon ook bij mezelf…ook wel spannend!)
Ont-moeten
Wat volgde was een tijd van onderzoeken, van projecten, van experimenteren en veel – al dan niet toevallige – ontmoetingen.
Een van de eerste toevallige ontmoetingen? Tijdens een durf-te-vragen sessie liep ik Tianne van Woudenberg van Meet & Discover tegen het lijf. Ondernemer, frisdenker & communicatie-Mens. En draagt graag bij de wereld mooier en leuker te maken! Serendipity in de dop.
Ondertussen deed ik allerlei projecten. Reïntegratie begeleiding. Persoonlijke ontdekkingsreizen, begeleidde groeps processen, coachte ondernemers, maakte websites (ja, ja, ook voor anderen). Lulde, luisterde en creëerde. En ontmoette vele mooie mensen.
Ont-wikkelen
Mooi he: iedereen heeft zijn eigen talenten en zijn eigen tempo. En weet stiekem heel goed wat goed is voor zichzelf…Maar in de grote-mensen-wereld leren we dat vakkundig te negeren. Ik ook.
We vergeten om niets te doen, te spelen, te ontdekken, te ont-wikkelen en gewoon te gaan voor wat dat wat we eigenlijk willen bereiken… ik ook.
Mijn eigen pad kende dan ook heel wat hobbels en obstakels. Ik stoeide met vragen als: waar ben ik zelf eigenlijk voor op de wereld en hoe ga ik dat tot bloei brengen…. Maakte keuzes, soms lastige, gaf opdrachten die niet pasten terug, startte nieuwe projecten. En voelde meer en meer mijn eigen persoonlijk succesgevoel terugkomen. Vooral heel veel voldoening.
Geen geknaag meer, geen onrust. Maar bloei-, groei en doe kracht.
Bloei in beeld
Een latente wens van mij was om echt te gaan scheppen. Beelden. Door beeldhouwen en boetseren. Maar iets hield me tegen. Zou ik het wel kunnen….piepte een klein stemmetje steeds in mijn hoofd. Een klein jaar geleden durfde ik eindelijk de sprong te wagen. Niet gehinderd door kennis of les, wel gesteund door een enorme drang en uiteindelijk genoeg lef, ben ik maar gewoon begonnen. Wat een plezier, wat een energie en wat een ideeenstroom kwam er op gang. En in de beelden zag ik ook waar ik me in mijn eigen proces bevond. En bevind…En dat blijkt een rijke informatiebron..
Ont-moeten, ontdekken en creëren. Dat is wat ik heb gedaan. En waar ik graag in deel. In faciliteer. Om de wereld een stukje mooier te maken. Minder moeten, meer talent tot bloei. Meer mooie ideeën werkelijkheid zien worden. Voelen waar de bruis ontstaat en de energie van groeit. En daarmee verandering de goede richting in te krijgen.
Door thinking different! En acting different.
Serendipity
En hoe mooi? De Inspiratie Plaats; een plek waar ik mijn ont-wikkel en creatiekracht kan inzetten, gaat haar deuren openen in samenwerking met Tianne en Elise van Meet & Discover, een inspirerende ontmoetings- en werk locatie in Amersfoort, waar de afgelopen jaren al heel veel prachtige initiatieven het licht gezien hebben.
De Inspiratie Plaats start in de ruimte die Think Different! heet. Toeval? Of….
(meer weten? kijk op www.deinspiratieplaats.nl)
The post Think different! appeared first on Seats2meet.com Magazine.
January 27, 2016
Free Webinar: Happiness in business: the secret ingredient for success
Our S2M Ambassador Mirjam Gilbert organizes a very nice webinar: Happiness is not some nebulous idea – it has quantifiable benefits for companies. Happy companies are 25% more profitable with research showing 150% higher earnings per share. Add to this the fact that happy businesses are more creative, have more loyal staff and a better reputation with customers and suppliers alike. Happiness is a key ingredient for success!
Diagnosing unhappiness
It’s easy to spot the symptoms of unhappiness in an organisation – does this sound familiar:
● Low productivity – even perks and bonuses don’t seem to make a lasting difference to output and motivation quickly hits a plateau.
● Firefighting – becomes the norm, rather than an exception; reacting to constant challenges erodes time for developing your people and concentrating on the big picture.
● Isolation – team members don’t collaborate and share knowledge as they should, creating internal silos which cause duplicated effort and poor information flow
● Low Morale – whose most apparent symptoms are absenteeism and costly staff turnover with key knowledge and skilled individuals leaving the business.
If any of this resonates with you, join us at our complimentary lunchtime webinar to explore the science behind happiness at work, what it means for you business and how you can promote happiness in your organisation – even if you are not the CEO.
What you will learn:
– What is happiness and the common misconception about happiness and business
– The scientific case for happiness at work
– How to avoid the most common mistake managers make when trying to improve morale
– Five things you can start doing today to boost your employee’s happiness and get greater productivity and innovation in return.
You will walk away from this webinar with powerful yet simple to apply insights and tools to grow happiness in your business and benefit from its impact.
WHEN
Thursday, 28 January 2016 from 12:30 to 13:30 (GMT) – Add to Calendar
The post Free Webinar: Happiness in business: the secret ingredient for success appeared first on Seats2meet.com Magazine.
January 26, 2016
Officiële opening Seats2meet Office Hotel Haarlemmerhout 4 februari
Op 4 februari aanstaande wordt aan de Fonteinlaan in de Haarlemmerhout officieel een nieuwe vestiging geopend van Seats2meet in Office Hotel Zuid. Office Hotel Zuid, gelegen aan de Haarlemmerhout, is de derde en nieuwste Office Hotel locatie dat Haarlem rijk is naast de succesvolle locaties bij Plaza West en bij Centraal Station Haarlem. Seats2meet wordt gemanaged in samenwerking met Klaartje Vreeken en wordt feestelijk geopend met een lezing van Ronald van den Hoff, de oprichter en visionair achter Seats2meet.
Belangstellenden zijn vanaf 15:00 uur welkom op locatie. Van 16:00 tot 17:00 uur geeft Van den Hoff een masterclass ‘Organisatie in transitie: de weg naar Society 3.0’. Er zijn nog slechts enkele van de 75 kaarten beschikbaar via de website www.officehotel.nl. Aansluitend vindt er een borrel plaats.
Office Hotel Haarlem is een all-in kantorenconcept, waarbij ondernemers al vanaf 249 euro per maand over een eigen kantoor beschikken. De ondernemer hoeft alleen het kantoor in te richten, waarna hij onder andere kan leunen op algemene ruimtes, snel internet en een bemande receptie. Het derde Office Hotel vormt een alliantie met Seats2meet, een software-service die ondernemers met dezelfde interesses en belangen met elkaar in contact brengt via het verhuren van ontmoetingsplaatsen en werkplekken of het organiseren van evenementen. Al meer dan 130 locaties in Nederland werken volgens het Seats2meet-model.
Luigi Prins, directeur Cobraspen Vastgoed en initiator van Office Hotel, is enthousiast over de locatie en de samenwerking met Seats2meet: “Op een bedrijvige locatie als Office Hotel helpt Seats2meet ondernemers om kansrijke ontmoetingen te organiseren en een waardevol netwerk op te bouwen. Met dit concept hopen wij een bijdrage te kunnen leveren aan een groei in netwerk, kennis en omzet van ondernemers op een inspirerende locatie naast het oudste stadsbos van Nederland.
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Delen is mijn passie
Delen is mijn passie.
En ik ga dit jaar veel met jou delen.
In alle opzichten.
2016 is mijn 20e ondernemersjaar.
Natuurlijk heb ik veel lessen geleerd.
Anders hou je het niet 20 jaar vol
Data Blog #2. Censorship or protection? EU and U.S. differences
Have you ever realized that a Google search result is different when you search for a name on Google.com or Google.co.uk? Probably not, but it’s true! The 2014 decision in the Google Spain case and subsequent discussions concerning the Right to be Forgotten illustrate the EU’s protective stance towards privacy and data issues of their citizens. The US, on the other hand, takes on a less protective approach. This has nothing to do with the EU being ‘over protective’ or the U.S. government simply ‘not caring’, the controversies rather stem from different legal interpretations and established rules and regulations in both systems.
In the EU an individual’s right to request removal of a listing overrides the economic interest of companies and the general public interest of access to information. The main aim of EU data protection is to protect the individual. However, the rules and regulations we have in the EU concerning the topic are irreconcilable with the U.S. First Amendment. Culturally the U.S. has placed a high significance on the right of free speech and most likely the Internet will fall within the category ‘speech’. An individual requesting a company such as Google to delete a listing from its search results would rather be seen as an attempt to censor instead the protection of data or privacy. Additionally, the US approach states that search engines are not responsible for the content published by other websites. Therefore they should not be held liable for the consequences stemming from it.
As a user of search engines, whether you are European or American, the impact of the different approaches is not imminent. There is a difference in search results for people’s names, and if you use an EU Google search engine (i.e. google.nl or google.co.uk) to search for a person’s name you will see “Some results have been removed under data protection law in Europe” at the bottom of the page. However, the different approaches can have a significant impact for people that wish to have a listing removed. In the U.S. the chance that such a person would succeed is small, if not non-existent. That is not to say that either approach is better than the other, the way certain rights and freedoms are valued and balanced are simply different amongst both jurisdictions. For more information click here.
At Seats2meet.com we believe we are heading towards a networked society (Society 3.0). Which approach would be more favorable in the new society? Would it be the EU-approach with a focus on protecting individual rights? Or rather the U.S. approach with an emphasis on the freedom of free speech? Maybe the role of courts and laws becomes irrelevant in Society 3.0, and instead social norms and inter-personal discussion replace the legal order we have come accustomed to. Who knows! Let me know what you think.
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January 25, 2016
How I met my operations manager
Life got easier for Gerben van der Werf, director at PMP Supervisor, when he met his future operations manager at Meet Berlage in Amsterdam, where he had organized a session of his ‘PMP Café. He tells his story.
‘I love to meet people, and I love it especially when I am able to unite talented and experienced people who can help each other move forward professionally. So it is no surprise that our aim at PMP Supervisor is to bring people together. We do this by matching up the demand and supply of Supervisory or Advisory Board Members, by means of a secure online platform. With this platform, we want to improve the quality of management and governance in the Netherlands.
Every once in a while we invite people to our ‘PMP Café’, where we give professionals the chance to interact with their peers, to ask questions and to help each other in an inviting and informal setting. Meet Berlage, inspired by Seats2meet, offers the perfect location for such an event. A few months ago we launched ‘PMP Dares to Ask’ together with Nils Roemen – the founding father of the original ‘#Dare to Ask’ – to bridge the gap between experienced Supervisory Board Members and good initiatives looking for high-end input. This proved to be a great success. People felt free to ask each other whatever they wanted to know, in a relaxed and inspiring atmosphere.
And it was there that I met up with Frans van der Storm, an independent management consultant who specializes in the field of professional ethics. He was interested in PMP Supervisor but also in my role as director. A few days later we came to talk about the amount of time I was spending on my work, which was a lot, and most of all, about how I could ensure the company’s continuity. We discussed the need for a fulltime operations manager. Little did I know then – and neither did Frans at the start of the conversation – that afterwards he was getting interested in taking up that role. He made that clear to me in an email that I received soon after.
We agreed to each put our ideas about the role of an operations manager on paper, to examine the differences and similarities. When we put our ideas side by side, it turned out that we had basically written the same piece. It felt good. Ten days later he got the job and it is working out fantastic. It is great to realize that I organize these PMP Cafes for people to meet and find each other, and that I end up finding my operations manager there myself.’
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January 22, 2016
Data Blog #1. Getting Drunk and ending up in Paris; The Right to be Forgotten.
Remember the story about a young English man that got drunk and woke up in Paris? His name was Luke Harding, Google him, ‘Luke Harding Paris’, you’ll find all the information you need concerning his little nightly escapade. But imagine that, one day, this boy wants to get a real job. After his initial interview they do a simple background check and voilà; he’s the guy that got drunk and woke up in Paris! This could potentially affect his chances of getting the job.
This kind of case falls within the issue of the Right to be Forgotten. What exactly does ‘the Right to be Forgotten’ entail? It concerns search results (listings) on third party search engines that operate within the EU (such as Google and Yahoo) that might breach your right to privacy or data protection. It can happen that, when you Google yourself, information pops up that you would rather not have potential employers or other people know. The EU court stated that if these listings are irrelevant, inaccurate, inadequate or excessive you have the right to request removal of such listing. However, the Right to be Forgotten is not absolute. This means that if your request for removal falls within one of those categories it will not automatically be deleted; the assessment should be carefully weighed, taking into account your right to privacy and data protection, but also the media’s freedom of expression and general public interest criteria.
So imagine you’re Luke Harding and you don’t want your future employers to find out about the time you made the front page, how do you go about it? In such a case you contact the search engine or original webmaster and ask them to delete the listing from the search results (Google actually has a separate form for this). The search engine assesses on a case-by-case basis whether your demand is valid and then makes a decision. If the search engine denies your request to delete the listing you will be able to go to your national data protection supervisory authority or the national courts to file a complaint. The new data protection regulation states that breaches of the Right to be Forgotten can result in fines up to 2% of the worldwide turnover of that company (for Google that would be over 1 billion USD)!
However, you should keep in mind that if the search engine deletes your listing the article will still remain on the original webpage. So if a newspaper published an article, the Right to be Forgotten allows you to request Google to delete the reference to it, but it does not require the newspaper to delete the article. The Right to be Forgotten makes it more difficult for information to be found, but I guess if you didn’t want anyone to find out you shouldn’t have gotten drunk and ended up in Paris in the first place. For a factsheet concerning the issue click here.
How does S2M do it? You can find your S2M profile in Google searches. If you delete your profile other users will no longer be able to find you in the Seats2meet.com database, but your profile will still pop up on Google results. When you delete your S2M profile the page will show up as a ‘404-error’ page. Gradually Google will learn that the page is no longer in use, but this takes time. Until that time comes people will still be able to see that you had a profile at S2M, and keywords that you listed in your profile. Although it is difficult to imagine that this data is by any means severely irrelevant, inaccurate, inadequate or excessive, it would be possible for you to request the removal of the listing. It has never happened before, but if it ever does I will let you know how things go from there!
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