Google has received more than 41,000 requests in four days from Europeans wanting the company to remove personal information from its web search results, according to people close to the company.

The rush of requests began on Friday after Google provided a form for individuals to complete to request the omission of links to certain information when their name is searched online.

Google introduced the takedown mechanism after the European Court of Justice ruled last month that individuals had the right to request the removal of search results linking to “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” personal data – even if the information has been published legally.

The latest figure for the number of requests suggests people have continued to bombard the search engine with removal requests since Google made the online form available. On the first day, the form was used 12,000 times.

– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014)