Mehul Reuben DasDec 10, 2022 12:33:44 IST
Court of Justice of the European Union, the highest court in the EU said in a recent judgement that Google will have to delete all search results and other information from their search engines, caches and algorithms if an organisation or a person is able to prove that the information pertaining to them is inaccurate or false.
The European Court of Justice ruled that search engines like Google must exercise the ability to dereference information and delink results if a person making the request can show that the material being shown is inaccurate or straight-up false. Image Credit: Google
The European Court of Justice ruled that search engines must exercise the ability to dereference information, or basically delink information if a person making the request can demonstrate beyond any doubt that the material being shown is inaccurate or straight-up false.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise as people in Europe have the right to ask Google and other search engines to delete links to outdated or embarrassing information about themselves, even if it is true, under a principle known as the “right to be forgotten.” India too has a similar provision.
The case stems from a complaint filed in Germany’s highest court by two managers at a group of investment companies who asked Google to remove search results based on their names that linked to articles criticizing the group’s investment model.
They said the articles made false claims. Neither the managers nor the company was identified.
The pair also asked Google to remove thumbnail photos of them that came up in image searches without any context. Google refused to comply, and replied, saying it didn’t know whether the articles were accurate or not.
EU has some pretty strict data protection rules, which give people residing in the European Union the right to control what appears when their name is searched online. However, search engine operators have often tried to counter the regulation by pitting data privacy concerns against the public’s right to know.
In this particular instance though, where the information is false or inaccurate, Google said it welcomed the decision. “Since 2014, we’ve worked hard to implement the right to be forgotten in Europe, and to strike a sensible balance between people’s rights of access to information and privacy,” the company said in a statement.
To avoid making it too hard to get false results removed, the ruling said a court decision isn’t needed and that people can “provide only evidence that can reasonably be required.”
Search engines wouldn’t have to investigate the facts of each case to determine whether the content is accurate, the court said, because it could amount to extra work that companies would be able to get around by proactively removing results.
When Google receives a takedown request, it doesn’t remove the links from all web searches, just when a person’s name is typed in. It will still show up when other search terms are used.
In a previous ruling, the court sided with Google in deciding that the “right to be forgotten” doesn’t apply outside the 27-nation EU. France’s privacy regulator had wanted the rule applied to all of Google’s search engines, even those outside Europe.
Google has deleted 5.25 million web links since it started handling “right to be forgotten” requests in 2014, or nearly half of all requests processed, according to the company’s latest transparency report.