Europe's top court: people have right to be forgotten on Internet

Reuters ^ | May 13, 2014 | Staff

[LucianOfSamasota]

May 13 (Reuters) - People can ask Google to delete sensitive information from its Internet search results, Europe's top court said on Tuesday.

The case underlines the battle between advocates of free expression and supporters of privacy rights, who say people should have the "right to be forgotten" meaning that they should be able to remove their digital traces from the Internet.

The ruling by the Luxembourg-based European Union Court of Justice (ECJ) came after a Spanish man complained to the Spanish data protection agency that an auction notice of his repossessed home on Google's search results infringed his privacy.

The case is one of 180 similar cases in Spain whose complainants want Google to delete their personal information from the Web. The company says forcing it to remove such data amounts to censorship.

[LucianOfSamasota]

Looks like censorship to me.

If the matters are public record, like the results of bankruptcy judgement, how can one complain?

If the matters are personal, like bank account numbers, then the culprit should be brought to justice.

Those with power will be more equal than those without when the internet exposes embarrassing data.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

I use Firefox with Ghosterly add-on. Clean with CCleaner after every session. Oh, Firefox BetterPrivacy, too.

[BuckeyeTexan]

Please delete all of my “stupid newb” comments. I have the right to be forgotten!! It’s in the Constitution. I think.

Heh.

[trisham]

"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision
of what is before them, glory and danger alike,
and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it."

~Thucydides

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[jiggyboy]

This case is iffy to me, but google doesn’t have clean hands. I’ve seen a resume I’ve posted and later deleted from job sites show up in some random google places years later.

[onedoug]

Seems to me like an avenue to allow convicted child molesters to slink back into the ooze.

[Rusty0604]

I bet politicians would like to eliminate news articles and videos about them. They could more easily lie about their record and mere common internet users like me couldn’t whip out archives to post or print out proving them wrong.