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Google wins case to keep right to be forgotten EU only 'Right to be forgotten' on Google only applies in EU, court rules
(about 2 hours later)
Google does not have to remove links to sensitive personal data globally, Europe’s top court has ruled in a landmark case that pits privacy rights against the right of free speech. Google does not have to apply Europe’s landmark “right to be forgotten” law globally, the continent’s highest court has ruled.
The ruling centres on Google’s dispute with France’s privacy watchdog, CNIL, which in 2015 told Google to delist information from internet search results globally upon request, in what is called the “right to be forgotten”. The right to be forgotten was enshrined by the European court of justice in 2014, when it said Google must delete “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” data from its results when a member of the public requests it.
CNIL fined Google €100,000 (£88,000) because it refused to comply. Google challenged the ruling at France’s council of state, which turned to the European court of justice for guidance. On Tuesday, the ECJ ruled that there was no obligation under EU law for a search engine operator to extend the 2014 ruling beyond the EU member states. However, it added that a search engine operator must put measures in place to discourage internet users from going outside the EU to find that information.
The right to be forgotten enables claimants to request the removal of links to irrelevant or outdated online information about them. Tuesday’s ruling means that when Google receives an appropriate request it needs only to remove references to online material from its search results in Europe, and not elsewhere. “The balance between right to privacy and 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,” the court said in its decision. The court said the right to be forgotten was not an absolute right.
“Currently, there is no obligation under EU law, for a search engine operator who grants a request for de-referencing made by a data subject... to carry out such a de-referencing on all the versions of its search engine,” the ECJ said. The case touched on the thorny issues of balancing data privacy and protection concerns against the public’s right to know, posing questions about how to enforce the law when it comes to the borderless internet. Tuesday’s ruling stems from a dispute between Google and the French privacy regulator CNIL, which in 2015 called for the firm to globally remove links to pages containing damaging or false information about a person.
“However, EU law requires a search engine operator to carry out such a de-referencing on the versions of its search engine corresponding to all the [EU] member states,” it added. Google introduced a geo-blocking feature in 2016 following year, which stopped European users from being able to see delisted links. However, it resisted censoring search results for people in other parts of the world, challenging a €100,000 (£88,376) fine CNIL tried to impose.
The ECJ established the right to be forgotten in a landmark 2014 ruling relating to a Spanish citizen’s claim against material about him found on Google searches. The technology firm argued that, if this rule were applied outside Europe, the obligation could be abused by authoritarian governments trying to cover up human rights abuses.
Google won the backing of the ECJ court adviser Maciej Szpunar earlier this year, who said the right to be forgotten should only be enforced in Europe and not globally. Judges follow such non-binding opinions in four out of five cases. Google says it has received 845,501 “right to be forgotten” requests in the past five years, leading to the removal of 45% of the 3.3m links referred to in the requests. Although the content itself remains online, it cannot be found through online searches of the individual’s name.
A Google report showed it removed 45% of the 3.3m links from 845,501 requests received in the last five years since the ECJ enshrined the right to be forgotten in Europe in 2014. The 2014 ruling related to a test case brought by a Spanish man after he failed to secure the deletion of an auction notice of his repossessed home dating from 1998 on a Catalan website.
The world’s most popular internet search engine has previously warned of the dangers of over-reach by Europe. In a blogpost two years ago, the company said there should be a balance between sensitive personal data and the public interest and that no one country should be able to impose its rules on citizens of another. Google won the backing of the ECJ court adviser Maciej Szpunar earlier this year, who said the right to be forgotten should be enforced only in Europe and not globally. Judges follow such non-binding opinions in four out of five cases.
The French council of state also asked for advice after CNIL decided not to order Google to remove links from internet search results based on the names of four individuals. The US firm was also supported by Microsoft, Wikipedia’s owner the Wikimedia Foundation, and the non-profit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, among others.
These included a satirical photomontage of a female politician, an article referring to someone as a public relations officer of the Church of Scientology, the placing under investigation of a male politician and the conviction of someone for sexual assaults against minors. The world’s most popular internet search engine has previously warned of the dangers of overreach by Europe. In a blogpost two years ago, the company said there should be a balance between sensitive personal data and the public interest and that no one country should be able to impose its rules on citizens of another.
“Since 2014, we’ve worked hard to implement the right to be forgotten in Europe, and to strike a sensible balance between people’s rights of access to information and privacy. It’s good to see that the court agreed with our arguments ...,” Google said in a statement after the ruling. On Tuesday, Peter Fleischer, Google’s senior privacy counsel, said in a statement: “Since 2014, we’ve worked hard to implement the right to be forgotten in Europe, and to strike a sensible balance between people’s rights of access to information and privacy. It’s good to see that the court agreed with our arguments.”
Thomas Hughes, executive director of the freedom of expression organisation Article 19, said: “This ruling is a victory for global freedom of expression. Courts or data regulators in the UK, France or Germany should not be able to determine the search results that internet users in America, India or Argentina get to see … It is not right that one country’s data protection authorities can impose their interpretation on Internet users around the world.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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