4 ms·

The EU already has laws regarding the correctness of information which protect against keeping and reporting inaccurate information. We also have laws which pro

The EU already has laws regarding the correctness of information which protect against keeping and reporting inaccurate information. We also have laws which protect your right to a certain level of privacy. The only valid reason for the right to be forgotten is because those existing laws are not enforced - news outlets can print falsehoods and leaked celebrity nudes, companies can publish data they know is outdated, and laws that exist to punish them for these things are not enacted. If such laws were to be enforced, what need is there to be forgotten? Only factually true public scandals seem to remain, and we have laws to protect their existence (freedom of the press, etc.) for a reason.

icebraining 11y ago
It's not about "public scandals", it's about small reports that got printed on page 34 twenty years ago on a regional newspaper, and that would have been history if Google didn't pull it out when you search for the person's name. The landmark case for this issue was Costeja: in 1998, a guy had some debts to Social Security, which forced the sale of some of his property to get reimbursed. More than a decade later, what would have been a record in a library basement, now appears as one of the top results when you search for his name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Spain_v_AEPD_and_Mario_Costeja_Gonz%C3%A1lez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Spain_v_AEPD_and_Mario_...
- llamallamallama 11y ago
  I apologise, "public scandals" was poor phrasing. My point was that the right to be forgotten aims to limit/remove access to information that is legally publicly available. In the Costeja case the court ruled that Google could be blocked from displaying the information on the grounds that it was no longer relevant (and did so under existing data protection laws, even if I believe that their application of those laws was misguided). The court also ruled that the newspaper could not be forced to remove the information. What bothers me about the right to be forgotten is that difference. The information was accurate and legal, but Google displaying that information was not. Why the split? If the information was truly irrelevant, why not have the newspaper remove it (and solve the Google issue in the process)? Why only Google (especially in the wider right to forgotten laws)?

icebraining 11y ago

It's not about "public scandals", it's about small reports that got printed on page 34 twenty years ago on a regional newspaper, and that would have been history if Google didn't pull it out when you search for the person's name. The landmark case for this issue was Costeja: in 1998, a guy had some debts to Social Security, which forced the sale of some of his property to get reimbursed. More than a decade later, what would have been a record in a library basement, now appears as one of the top results when you search for his name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Spain_v_AEPD_and_Mario_Costeja_Gonz%C3%A1lez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Spain_v_AEPD_and_Mario_...

llamallamallama 11y ago
I apologise, "public scandals" was poor phrasing. My point was that the right to be forgotten aims to limit/remove access to information that is legally publicly available. In the Costeja case the court ruled that Google could be blocked from displaying the information on the grounds that it was no longer relevant (and did so under existing data protection laws, even if I believe that their application of those laws was misguided). The court also ruled that the newspaper could not be forced to remove the information. What bothers me about the right to be forgotten is that difference. The information was accurate and legal, but Google displaying that information was not. Why the split? If the information was truly irrelevant, why not have the newspaper remove it (and solve the Google issue in the process)? Why only Google (especially in the wider right to forgotten laws)?