Talk Elections

A top EU court has ruled Google must amend some search results at the request of ordinary people in a test of the so-called "right to be forgotten".

The European Union Court of Justice said links to "irrelevant" and outdated data should be erased on request.

The case was brought by a Spanish man who complained that an auction notice of his repossessed home on Google's search results infringed his privacy.

Google said the ruling was "disappointing".

Backers of the "right to be forgotten" are celebrating this ruling. EU Commissioner Viviane Reding has called it "a clear victory for the protection of personal data of Europeans".

But the judgement could have huge consequences for anyone who publishes material online about individuals, and they will urgently be asking their lawyers exactly what it means.

Can anyone who does not like an old story about them simply demand that it is wiped away? That does appear to be the case - the ruling says the rights of the individual are paramount when it comes to their control over their personal data, although there is a public interest defence when it comes to people in public life.

Google, having won at earlier stages of this legal battle, is both surprised and furious at this outcome. But it isn't clear that the search firm can do anything about it.

<snip>

As for this case it's not a big deal. You more or less have to sue search engines for them to remove these information, and there they major difference between USA and most of the rest of the World in. Outside USA it's a major investment to sue someone, the compensation when you sue are smaller, so it's very rare to see a lawyer willing to sue against getting part of the compensation, so this is expensive for the plaintiff, so this are unlikely to be very expensive for Search Engines.

In implementing this decision, we will assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public’s right to know and distribute information. When evaluating your request, we will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there’s a public interest in the information—for example, information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials.

Please note that this form is an initial effort. We look forward to working closely with data protection authorities and others over the coming months as we refine our approach.

Google’s French arm has been told it will have to pay a 1,000 euro fine every day should the parent company in America – Google Inc - fail to remove a defamatory article from its global network.
The order, by a court in Paris, is an enforcement of the controversial so-called ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling.
The case was brought against Google by Dan Shefet, a Danish lawyer employed in France, last August following a malicious campaign against his firm by various blogs and sites that was overseen by someone who couldn’t be traced.