The recent decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in favor of a Spanish man upholding his "Right To Be forgotten" online has evoked mixed responses from Privacy Activists and Freedom of Information Activists. The European Court of Justice earlier this year ruled that an Individual has the "Right To Be forgotten" online and ordered tech giant Google to remove all previous negative links related to him on its search index.
The above case filed by a Spanish man before the ECJ related to an old news clipping regarding the debt he owed which he subsequently paid up. He argued before the ECJ that his old debt was history and that the old news item was no longer relevant and his fortunes have changed in the subsequent years and hence demanded removal of those links from Google search results.
The above ruling has snowballed into a debate between Right to Privacy and Freedom of Information or Right to Know.The new decision allows Internet users to request companies like Google, Bing or Yahoo to delete information relating to individuals or entities that may be irrelevant, outdated or inadequate.
This recent decision has been good news for criminals, stalkers, fraudsters, pedophiles, sexual offenders who can now request any undesirable links related to their crimes be removed from Google searches. But Google said it will evaluate each request in an attempt to create a balance between Privacy Rights of an Individual and the Public Right to Information.
Subsequent to the ECJ decision Google received over 41,000 requests to be forgotten. These included requests from people accused of various crimes, child porn offenders, and other crimes.
The above decision leaves a dilemma for countries like India without a Privacy Law in place. A link to request the "Right to be Forgotten" can be found at https://support.google.com/legal/contact/lr_eudpa?product=websearch
