Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, PRIVACY NEWS: Google panel advises that “Right to be Forgotten” should apply only in Europe, (Feb 9, 2015)

By Brian Hammond,TR Daily

An advisory panel formed by Google, Inc., has told the company that it is appropriate for Google to apply only in Europe a European court ruling requiring it to remove certain links upon request.

The Advisory Council to Google on the Right to be Forgotten is an eight-member panel convened by Google to advise it on implementing the May 2014 European Court of Justice ruling on the so-called "Right to be Forgotten," and was asked to advise the company on "performing the balancing act between an individual's right to privacy and the public's interest in access to information."

In a report released today, the advisory panel noted that many search engines operate different versions of their technology targeted to users in a particular country. The court's ruling is "not precise about" which versions of a search engine the requirement to delist information upon request applies to, it said.

Google has implemented requested information delistings across all of its European-directed search services, the report notes. "The council understands that it is a general practice that users in Europe when typing in www.google.com to their browser, are automatically redirected to a local version of Google's search engine," it said. "Google has told us that over 95% of all queries originating in Europe are on local versions of the search engine. Given this background, we believe that delistings applied to the European versions of search will, as a general rule, protect the rights of the data subject adequately in the current state of affairs and technology.

"In considering whether to apply a delisting to versions of search targeted at users outside of Europe, including globally, we acknowledge that doing so may ensure more absolute protection of a data subject's rights," the council wrote. "However, it is the conclusion of the majority that there are competing interests that outweigh the additional protection afforded to the data subject.

"There is a competing interest on the part of users outside of Europe to access information via a name-based search in accordance with the laws of their country, which may be in conflict with the delistings afforded by the ruling," it said. "These considerations are bolstered by the legal principle of proportionality and extraterritoriality in application of European law."

The council said it "supports effective measures to protect the rights of data subjects. Given concerns of proportionality and practical effectiveness, it concludes that removal from nationally directed versions of Google's search services within the EU is the appropriate means to implement the ruling at this stage."

In a statement, Consumer Watchdog dismissed the report as a "self-serving publicity stunt."

“The right to be forgotten is an important privacy protection in the digital age. It’s not censorship; it merely gives people some control over access to irrelevant information about them from the past,” said John Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project. “Instead of trying to limit its scope, Google should be working to adapt the policy for the United States.”

News: Privacy