The latest episode in the ongoing privacy struggle that has been dubbed a right to be forgotten has resulted in a win for Google. Although in fact, it would be more accurately called a right to be delisted or de-referenced, as the original information is not removed; rather, the search engine has to remove the links to the actual webpage where the information is listed. Back in 2014 this right was introduced when a Spanish citizen wanted to have links to a previous conviction removed from the Google results.
Ever since that court ruling came out, organisations have been struggling to implement the implications, and a debate has arisen on what the geographic scope should be: should the delisting happen universally across the globe? On only on those pages aimed at the EU? Or something in-between? For example, when searching on the French www.google.fr, you wouldn’t be able to find certain delisted results, but the Mexican domain www.google.com.mx would still show the results.
The French regulator, the CNIL, ruled that Google should be removing all results regardless of the geographical reach of the page. When Google challenged this decision, the case was finally brought to the EU Court of Justice, who ruled that the right only applies to operations that are aimed at the EU. In other words, the results do not have to be removed universally, on pages operated for countries that are outside the EU.
The Court has thus ruled – in this landmark case – that this Right to be Delisted only applies for the EU, and Google is not obliged to remove the links worldwide, invalidating the CNIL’s interpretation. In the clarification the Court writes that “the balance between the right to privacy and the protection of personal data, on the one hand, and the freedom of information of internet users, on the other, is likely to vary significantly around the world.”
In other words, the law that applies to the EU should not take priority over other judications; and for search engine operators, “there is no obligation under EU law (…) to carry out such a de-referencing on all the versions of its search engine.”
This decision has not only been welcomed by Google, but also other organisation such as Wikimedia Foundation, Microsoft, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Internet Freedom Foundation, all of whom are supporting the outcome, arguing that people would try to use the rule in Europe to erase unflattering information elsewhere.
