Outcry over right to be forgotten

Google and other online companies have criticised a court ruling that gives European Union citizens the right to prevent search engines from linking to websites carrying “irrelevant” or “out-of-date” personal information.

Following the judgment handed down on Tuesday (13 May) by the EU’s highest court, Google said in a statement: “This is a disappointing ruling for search engines and online publishers in general.” James Waterworth, vice-president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, said the ruling “opens the door to large-scale private censorship in Europe,” echoing comments made by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia.

The European Court of Justice was ruling on a case brought by Mario Costeja González, a Spaniard who complained that Google’s search engine linked his name to a 1998 announcement of an auction of his house to cover unpaid social security contributions.

He judged this information unwelcome (though the irony is that it has now been widely disseminated). The website of La Vanguardia, the newspaper where the announcement was published, was not required by the national data protection supervisor to delete the announcement because it was the original publication.

The court, sitting in a grand chamber of 13 senior judges, held that Google “processed” data and was thus subject to EU data protection rules. Data protection authorities or courts could consequently force Google to remove links to personal information, even if that material was legally published on the internet, the court ruled, agreeing with the European Commission and several national governments that intervened in the case.

Exceptions
The court also agreed with the governments of Spain and Italy that EU citizens enjoyed a general “right to be forgotten” – although it sketched out exceptions for politicians, information that was in the public interest, and data kept for historical purposes.

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The Commission proposed a “right to be forgotten” in a 2012 data protection proposal. This was backed by MEPs, but faces opposition from member states.

Implementing the ruling, drawn up by Slovenian judge Marko Ilešicˇ, could entail significant costs for search engine companies. Wentworth warned that it could “open the floodgates for tens of thousands of requests”. According to Spanish daily El Pais, there are more than 200 similar cases in Spain, including one where a school teacher wants to remove links on Google to an eight-year-old conviction for urinating in public.

It may also give rise to legal uncertainty, as it will be up to national courts to define concepts such as “irrelevant” or “inadequate”.