About ReviewRadar
A public-interest transparency projectReviewRadar tracks businesses across Germany's 100 largest cities that display review removal notices on their Google Maps listings. Each week our scraper runs through city after city, recording which businesses have had reviews removed — and how many.
What we track: When a business on Google Maps successfully has reviews removed under defamation law, Google may display a notice like "21–50 reviews removed" directly on the listing. ReviewRadar records this publicly visible figure and tracks how it changes over time.
Why this exists
Review manipulation is a known problem on platforms like Google Maps. One mechanism is legal pressure: businesses can request removal of negative reviews by claiming defamation under German law. When successful, Google displays the removal count on the listing — but there is no centralised public record of which businesses have done this at scale.
ReviewRadar fills that gap. The data is purely statistical and drawn entirely from public sources. We make no judgment about whether specific removals were justified or not — that is a legal question for courts, not for us.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the data come from?
All data is scraped from publicly accessible Google Maps listings using an automated browser. We only record information that is already visible to any user visiting a business listing: the business name, address, category, star rating, and the removal count shown in the notice banner.
How often is it updated?
Each city is scraped approximately once per week. The entire set of 100 cities rotates over 7 days, so at any given time most cities are at most 7 days old. The last-scraped date is shown on each city page.
What do the removal count ranges mean?
Google does not publish exact removal counts. It shows ranges (e.g. "11–20 reviews removed" or "21–50 reviews removed"). ReviewRadar records the lower bound of the range as the minimum removal count. The upper bound is also stored where available.
What is the "adjusted rating"?
This is a rough estimate: if all removed reviews were 1-star (the minimum), what would the current rating be? It is a conservative lower bound — the actual impact may be less if some removed reviews were positive. This figure is clearly labelled as an estimate.
Is this legal to publish?
Yes. The removal counts are publicly displayed on Google Maps. Aggregating and republishing publicly visible facts for transparency and public-interest purposes is generally permissible. We do not reproduce review content, do not name individual reviewers, and make no editorial assertions about the businesses listed. For details see our Impressum and Privacy Policy.
Is this affiliated with Google?
No. ReviewRadar is an independent project. "Google Maps" is a trademark of Google LLC. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Google in any way.
I found incorrect data. How do I report it?
The data reflects what was shown on Google Maps at the time of the last scrape. If a business's listing has since changed, the next weekly scrape will update it automatically. For other concerns, contact smudge.arch-3g@icloud.com.
Open source
The scraper and frontend code are available on GitHub. ReviewRadar was inspired by the work of Patrick Wunderlich (nuernberg-maps-review-removals, MIT licensed), expanded to cover all of Germany's 100 largest cities.