Europe To Google: Sanitized Search Results

For the folks who are living in Europe, here is news for you – you might eventually be able to remove links as well as other information in search results that pertain to you which could potentially threaten your privacy, thanks to a ruling by the European Union’s top court. The court claims that people do “have a right to be forgotten,” and I am quite sure that a fair number of people would definitely agree with that.

In a particular case that involved a Spanish man who would want Google to delete a 16-year-old newspaper article concerning his house being auctioned off because he did not manage to pay his taxes back then, will get his way after the court ruled in his favor. Granted, the court in question is the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice, where its ruling would be binding across all 28 EU member countries, and it will also involve all search engine owners – Google included.

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has called it “a clear victory for the protection of personal data of Europeans.” Google is no doubt disappointed with such a decision, and Emma Carr, who is acting director of the British group Big Brother Watch, said, “The principle that you have a right to be forgotten is a laudable one, but it was never intended to be a way for people to rewrite history. Search engines do not host information, and trying to get them to censor legal content from their results is the wrong approach.” What do you think?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: Google