The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that Google must amend some search results upon the request of Internet users to protect their privacy.
In what is being called the “right to be forgotten”, the ruling means that users may request that Google removes “irrelevant” data from search results which appear on web pages published by third parties.
The ruling states: “If, following a search made on the basis of a person’s name, the list of results displays a link to a web page which contains information on the person in question, that data subject may approach the operator directly and, where the operator does not grant his request, bring the matter before the competent authorities in order to obtain, under certain conditions, the removal of that link from the list of results.”
The case was first brought to the high court by a Spanish man in 2010, who lodged a complaint against La Vanguardia Ediciones SL – the publisher of a widely circulated Spanish newspaper – and Google Spain and Google Inc., contending that an auction notice of his repossessed home on Google’s search results infringed his privacy.
While the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) rejected Mr Gonzalez’s complaint against La Vanguardia, Google Spain and Google Inc. were requested to remove his data from their index and to render access to the data impossible in the future.
Viviane Reding, the EU Justice Commissioner, wrote in a post on Facebook that the Court judgement is a “clear victory” for the protection of personal data of Europeans.
“The data belongs to the individual, not to the company,” she wrote. “And unless there is a good reason to retain this data, an individual should be empowered – by law – to request erasure of this data.”
Reding added that the ruling “confirms the need to bring today’s data protection rules from the “digital stone age” into today’s modern computing world where data is no longer stored on a “server”, or once launched online disappears into cyber space.
“This is exactly what the data protection reform is about: making sure those who do business in Europe, respect European laws and empowering citizens to take the necessary actions to manage their data. Big data need [sic] big rights.”
A Google spokesperson said that the ruling is “disappointing” for search engines and online publishers in general, and that Google will need to take time to “analyse the implications.”
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