French Privacy Watchdog Wants Google To Delist Links Globally

In a ruling made last year by the EU, Google was ordered to entertain “right to be forgotten” requests which basically scrubs links related to a person/organization from Google’s own search results. According to the recent numbers, Google has apparently denied about 59% of the requests, something that French privacy watchdog CNIL isn’t too happy about.

So much so that they have issued Google an ultimatum and have given them 15 days to delist links globally or face sanctions. Now it seems that the CNIL isn’t demanding that Google agree to every request, but at the moment the delisting of links seems to only apply in the European region, but the CNIL is asking Google to remove it on a global scale which we suppose makes sense.

According to the CNIL, “Following the assessment of the complaints, the CNIL has requested Google to carry out the delisting of several results. It was expressly requested that the delisting should be effective on whole search engine, irrespective of the extension used (.fr; .uk; .com …).”

However Google begs to differ. The company claims that they have been doing what they have been asked, which according to Google, “We’ve been working hard to strike the right balance in implementing the European Court’s ruling, co-operating closely with data protection authorities. The ruling focused on services directed to European users, and that’s the approach we are taking in complying with it.”

In any case what do you guys think of this? Was it implied that Google should have delisted those links on a global scale, or because it was ordered by the EU that it only applies to the European region?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Web
Tags: Google, Legal, Privacy