European Court Lets Users Erase Records on Web

by David Streitfeld, The New York Times

The European Court of Justice on Tuesday said Google should allow online users to erase links to content about them after a certain amount of time, in a ruling that rejects long-established Internet practices.

The court said people had the right to determine what others can find out about them by searching the Internet, and said search engine operators should erase links to Web pages unless there are “particular reasons” not to do so.

Jonathan Zittrain, a law and computer science professor at Harvard, said those who were determined to shape their online personas could in essence have veto power over what they wanted people to know.  “Some will see this as corrupting. Others will see it as purifying,” says  professor Jonathan Zittrain. “I think it’s a bad solution to a very real problem, which is that everything is now on our permanent records.”

The court’s decision cannot be repealed and clashes with U.S. First Amendment rights. The European Court said search engines played an active role as “data controllers” and should be held accountable for their links, and also said “as a general rule” they should place the right to privacy over the right of the public to find information.

Google said the ruling was disappointing and noted it differed significantly from a preliminary verdict last year. Analysts say the ruling leaves many unanswered questions and could lead to the imposition of digital borders.

That view was echoed by Big Brother Watch, a London-based civil liberties group that was perhaps the first to invoke the specter of Orwell.  “The principle that you have a right to be forgotten is a laudable one, but it was never intended to be a way for people to rewrite history,” said Emma Carr, the organization’s acting director.  Article