Ride the Lightning

European High Court Allows "Erasing" Your Records on the Web

May 15, 2014

The New York Times reported Tuesday on a decision that has garnered worldwide attention.

Europe’s highest court, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, ruled that people have the right to influence what the world can learn about them through online searches. The court said that search engines like Google should allow users to be "forgotten" after a period of time by erasing links to web pages unless there are "particular reasons" not to do so.

Under the court’s ruling, information would still exist on websites, court documents and online archives of newspapers, but people would not necessarily know it was there. The decision cannot be appealed.

In the United States, the court’s ruling would clash with the First Amendment. But the Europeans have always seen privacy through a different lens. This decision spotlights their concern with information about them, including drunk photos from college, following them around forever.

The court said search engines were not simply dumb pipes, but played an active role as data “controllers,” and must be held accountable for the links they provide. Search engines could be compelled to remove links to certain pages, it said, “even when the publication in itself on those pages is lawful.” The court also said that a search engine “as a general rule” should place the right to privacy over the right of the public to find information.

Google has more than 90 percent of the search business in France and Germany and is the dominant search engine in Europe – therefore the burden of fulfilling the court's order will fall largely on Google.

Google said in a statement that the ruling was “disappointing” and that the company was “very surprised” it differed so much from a preliminary verdict last year that was largely in its favor.

The decision leaves many questions unanswered. Is information to be dropped only in individual countries or erased from Google.com itself? How much effort must Google spend investigating complaints?

Many people are worried about politicians and others with something to hide using this ruling to do so. “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,” said Emma Carr, the acting director of Big Brother Watch, a London-based civil liberties group.

For companies that charge large fees to help people get negative information buried in the search engines, this is a not a decision they are cheering. And on this side of the pond, most commentators (myself including) think this is a bad solution to a (sometimes) legitimate problem.

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