Right to Information Versus Right to be Forgotten: Google Faces The EU Challenge
Right to Information Versus Right to be Forgotten: Google Faces The EU Challenge
Google and other internet firms are now finding a tough issue on their hands as the battle between privacy and information takes shape. Google, the world's best search engine took steps to uphold an EU privacy ruling was recently passed. Google moved rapidly to put up an online form for allowing European citizen to take down links to obsolete information.
This was in keeping with a ruling made by the top court at EU on the “right to be forgotten”. The ruling had been made on May 13, 2014. it upheld the law passed in 1995 regarding data protection. The court also asked Google to move the links to a 1998 newspaper article about the repossession of the home of a Spanish person.
Now Google and other internet companies are stuck with the difficulty of how to interpret the broad criteria for the information to be removed as being “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant”. What is an even bigger problem is how to develop criteria for differentiating between public personalities and private individuals.
Considering the fact that being the topmost celebrity searched for on Google is a feather in the cap for public figures, erasing links for people who later become eminent can prove to be a major problem for those wanting data on the early lives of these individuals. The best part about Google had been its unbiased search engine which yields positive as well as negative information about an individual.
Employees and companies have used Google to get information about the past records and background of an employee. Detectives would get critical input about those who have committed felony through the search engine. Google's search engine was valued for its objective and careful filtering of information to provide only the most relevant links.
When Google put up the online form for those who want their information removed, over 12,000 requests were received in a single night. That is an average of 20 requests per minute. Doubtless, people want to guard their privacy and prevent personal information from being misused.
Google now faced the difficult position of striking the right balance between an individual's right to be forgotten and an individual's right to know. EU authorities must agree on a common approach to guide internet companies. Meanwhile EU representatives from 28 data protection authorities are coming together to discuss the fallout of the court ruling.
Privacy has emerged as the single biggest concern in not only Europe, but other parts of the world as well. Unauthorised access to someone's personal life is not ethical. But neither is it correct to take away the right to access information. With surveillance being a hot issue in the current times, it becomes quite interesting to wonder whether stopping a search engine from revealing information will really protect your privacy.
In the high technology age of satellites and advanced monitoring equipment, one wonders if there is such a thing as privacy even left. State monitoring is nothing new. However, with the advancement of technology, it too has progressed. However, knowing that Google or other internet companies will be prevented from revealing information is still a consolation for those who value their right to privacy.
