In a recent European Court ruling Search engines such as Google have been ordered to enable "the right to be forgotten". Basically if you have any information on the internet that you are embarrased or incriminated by you can request that Google remove the links to the information so it is not easily found in searches. The information itself is still there but it is not as easy to find.
It seems 12,000 people put requests in with Google on the first day and in a Facebook post, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding stated that the ruling was a "clear victory for the protection of personal data for Europeans."
I fail to see how this is the case. What the EU has in fact done is put even more power in Google hands since they are now being asked to be the arbiter of if you have the right to be forgotten or not. Google has already launched a service to allow Europeans to ask for personnel data to be removed from online search results. In a statement Google said it would "balance privacy rights of the individual with the publics right to know and distribute information." Why are the European Court putting this determination in the hands of Google?
In the 1995 movie The Net, Sandra Bullock plays a computer programmer who has her records erased from existence and given a new identity, one with a police record. The resulting movie is full of intrigue and espionage, but of course today all the criminals would have had to do to erase her identity, was fill in a form and send it to Google. It would have made for a pretty boring movie.
There are legitimate reasons why there needs to be a process where erroneous or needlessly damaging information should be "Forgotten". Putting that decision in the hands of a search provider is not the right path though. It is both putting the power to determine legitimacy in the wrong hands and it is the equivalent of a Fahrenheit 451 book burning policy on information that others may truly find legitimate. If a newspaper publishes erroneous information about you you can sue them for libel or simply request they print a retraction. If the information is true or false it remains part of historical record forever. You can not request every copy of the paper is found and burned or that microfische companies need to blank out your information.
The Internet is actually more "forgetful" than traditional media. Information can be deleted, albeit with difficulty. The courts however need to take responsibility for who owns decisions about information ans it's legitimacy and it should not be public corporations.
Update July 7 2014.
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Since I originally posted this Blog, Google has been taking requests and "Forgetting" information on the web. This has of course highlighted why it is not a good idea to put this decision in the hands of Google. Dave Lee of the BBC posted this article about how google had been forced to 'Unforget' information that was originally postred by the BBC and the Guardian newspaper after complaints when Google 'forgot' it.
For Google part they say they did not want this ruling, but now after being placed at the center of it by the European Court ruling they are trying to comply as best they can. This story will no doubt go on and on.
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