Recently, a friend of mine got engaged. While conversing with an acquaintance after the engagement, she was surprised to learn that this person (who she barely knew) had already taken the time to google her fiancé. Thankfully, her fiancé was a successful and respectable member of the community. But what if he weren’t? Let’s suppose he had a few minor skeletons in his closet but my friend decided to move forward with the marriage despite knowing this. Should she expect that information to be common knowledge to every person she meets?
This issue was confronted by the highest court in the European Union when it recently decided that people have a right to be “forgotten” by Google and other search engines. As Laura Entis discusses, the EU court ruled that Google must delete links to information that is "inadequate, irrelevant," or "excessive…in the light of the time that has elapsed" upon request a member of the public. Except for outlining the “time elapsed” as a factor, the EU court gave Google no other guidelines to determine what is “inadequate”, “irrelevant” or “excessive”. This court further muddied the water by stating that Google can deny any request that meets the courts standard if “there are particular reasons, such as the role played by the data subject in public life, justifying a preponderant interest of the public.”
Seeing that just about everything is on the internet these days, this “right to be forgotten” may seem like a god-send to those who want to retain a modicum of privacy in their lives. But, before we rush to adopt similar rules here in the U.S., we have to ask ourselves if we really want to give Google and the other search engines even more control over our lives. In many instances, especially for small business owners and entrepreneurs, having a web presence is everything! Plus, shouldn’t we be concerned about having information scrubbed of all negativity? After all, how can we make an informed decision about anything if we are only seeing “one side of the coin”?
That being said, I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this. Should the U.S. adopt a law similar to this one in EU or should we keep things as they are?
