Recently, the Audiencia Nacional urged European Court of Justice to rule on Spanish citizens’ privacy rights when it comes to search engines. More precisely, the Spain’s highest court requests that Google users have the personal data deleted from the search engines. The European Court of Justice will have the mission to decide if the Spanish Court request is lawful or not.
The question about Google’s privacy policy became less theoretical and highlighted the practical aspects after a man complained that an old information about him keeps surfacing over Google News. Years ago the man was notified about his home’s repossession fro non-payment of his social security.
Meanwhile he sorted out the problem with the authorities but the recurrence of this information that keeps appear in relation to his name is causing him problems. The case is not singular in Spain, according to Reuters. In Madrid, the public authority that is regulating data protection received more than a hundred requests from Internet users to have their personal information removed from Google’s search results.
Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice and fundamental rights considered “the right to be forgotten” an important matter. She included the aspect into the updated data protection rules to be discussed by the European Parliament in the near future.
Google argued that the search engine is only the host of information not the owner and it doesn’t have the right to delete content. A Google representative explained for Reuters that the search giant resects the privacy rights of the users. “We support the right to be forgotten, and we think there are ways to apply it to intermediaries like search engines in a way that protects both the right to privacy and the right to free expression,” said Google spokesperson.
[ttjad]
