Google and the Right to Be Forgotten

Austin Rochow

201827-MGT-4397-D01-Mgmt/Business Environment

Google and the right to be forgotten

In 2010 Mario Costeja Conzalez searched his name on google and found out that a legal notice that had appeared almost ten years ago in a newspaper.  On this Costeja reacted because that information could belittle his reputation as an attorney. He had paid all the legal obligations and the information was obsolete. Costeja filed a complaint to the Spanish Data Protection Authority (AEPD) against the La Vanguardia (The newspaper), Google Spain and the Google Inc. In his application he requested AEPD to order La Vanguardia to remove the content that was about him because it could potentially harm his reputation as an attorney and personally he did not wanted his data to be public. He furthermore requested AEPD to ask the Google Spain and Google Inc. to remove or hide the personal data that was about him. In his defense he said that that data and cases that appear about him on google search were fully resolved a number of years ago and now it had become entirely irrelevant.

AEPD did not consider his request and his complaint was rejected regarding the the publication on La Vanguadia saying that the publications were legally justified as they were made upon the orders of Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. However the application against Google Spain and Google Inc. were considered and in a proceeding before the National High Court the question was raised about the obligations of the search engines to protect personal data.

As we are living in an era where technology has become very common that it has ingrained into our personal lives. The use of social media has become very common and to protect everyone’s personal data is a challenge. Companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc are collecting millions of terabytes of data on daily basis. In such scenario it is really hard for them to even maintain privacy and obey ethical conduct. As in the case the ruling was in favor of Costeja, and google had to change its policies where by it allowed people to opt for right to be forgotten incase if they don’t want their private data to appear in the good search engine.

With the advent of internet and modern technology the flow of data has become really easy. Most economic activities are mainly information oriented because of the ease of use of technology. As internet has transformed world into a global village. The information flow across the world has become really easy and rapid. Search engines like google use different algorithms and find the data available from all the possible online sources and that too in less than seconds. This has posed a threat to personal privacy of modern day human beings.

I believe that individuals should have right to be forgotten, as it someone’s personal consent either to be on the internet or not. Unless the person is a criminal or fraud or a terrorist any other person must have right to be or not to be on internet. As in the case Costeja wanted to be forgotten as the information regarding was old and obsolete. Google’s policy is clear in this case as on request they remove all the personal information from search results given the fact that if that information causes harm, identity theft or any fraud.