In the Press
Washington Daily Internet features Igniyte on the Right To Be Forgotten
30 September 2019 · Igniyte
Roz Sheldon, Head of Client Services and Managing Partner at Igniyte talks to the Washington Internet Daily about the European Court of Justice (ECJ) Ruling on the Right to be Forgotten (RTBF).
Google’s Right To Be Forgotten is the concept that people have the civil right to request that personal information, videos or images removed from the Internet so that they cannot be found by search engines, and no longer appear in search results for your name.
The recent ECJ ruling states that the RTBF does not have to apply the right to be forgotten globally and only applies in the EU. It means that Google only has to remove links from its search results in Europe – rather than globally – after receiving an appropriate request.
The ruling stems from a dispute between Google and a French privacy regulator. In 2015, CNIL ordered the firm to globally remove search result listings to pages containing damaging or false information about a person.
The following year, Google introduced a geoblocking feature that prevents European users from being able to see delisted links. But it resisted censoring search results for people in other parts of the world. And the firm challenged a 100,000 ($109,901; £88,376) euro fine that CNIL had tried to impose.
Roz Sheldon is quoted as saying “Many businesses are global and those doing employee checks will be able to see differing regional versions for individuals. Many minor offenses or negative stories reported in news articles can rank highly in Google search results and are often opinion-based. They can remain visible in search results for 10-20 years, potentially harming someone’s reputation long-term, and the ability to find a job outside the EU.”
You can read the full article here.
