“Individuals can ask Google Inc. to remove links to news articles, court judgments and other documents in search results for their name, the European Union’s highest court said Tuesday,” Frances Robinson reports for The Wall Street Journal. “It was a surprise decision regarding a landmark case in Spain which will have implications for privacy throughout Europe.”
“The European Court of Justice said search companies are responsible for personal data that shows up on Web pages they link to in search results — unexpectedly changing its approach from the Advocate General’s opinion last year,” Robinson reports. “The decision means that individuals can ask Google or other search operators to take down links to web pages that are published by third parties, such as newspapers, containing information relating them when searched by name — such as coverage of court cases or legal announcements.”
“The Court said that because the impact on people of what comes up in search results relating to them is so huge, they should have the right to get certain material removed, but also that a balance needs to be struck with the public interest, especially with people who have a prominent role in society,” Robinson reports. “‘This balance may however depend, in specific cases, on the nature of the information in question and its sensitivity for the data subject’s private life,’ it said, as well as the public interest, ‘which may vary, in particular, according to the role played by the data subject in public life.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Google loves one thing, it loves data most. Taking any data away is the ultimate torture for Google. They’ve got to be absolutely hating this decision in Mountain View.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz,” “Arline M.,” Gideon R.” for the heads up.]