House of Lords report comes out against “right to be forgotten”
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House of Lords report comes out against “right to be forgotten”
The House of Lords EU Home Affairs, Health and Education Sub-Committee has published a report: EU Data Protection law: a ‘right to be forgotten’?, in which it considers the consequences of the ECJ’s judgment in the case of Google Spain SL and Google Inc v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD) and Mario Costeja González (Case C-131/12) (see Legal update, ECJ confirms right to have search engine results removed where they affect privacy rights) for search engines and other online providers. In particular, the committee examined whether, following this judgment, the law on data protection continues to achieve a fair balance between the competing fundamental rights of privacy, and of the freedom to seek and impart accurate information that is lawfully acquired. It also sought to establish how far it is practical for search engines to comply with the judgment, or to do so without disproportionate expense.
The report concludes that the right to be forgotten is “misguided in principle and unworkable in practice” and that neither the Data Protection Directive (1995/46/EC), on which the judgment is based, nor the court’s interpretation of it “reflects the current state of communications service provision, where global access to detailed personal information has become part of the way of life”.
You may find this is precisely what we said back in the April after the Judgment! Will be interesting to see what happens and whether the links which have now been removed during this time, will now be re-instated!