What Started as a one man fight may change the way search engine giant Google functions. A European court ruled verdict in favor of a man who took Google to court for removing dated ill information about him from search and have a’right to be forgotten’.
According to BBC news Justice for European Union Court ruled that Google must give common man a ‘Right to be forgotten’ i.e. abide by common man’s request to remove dated and unrelated information on them.
What this means is individuals especially those who are not public figures will have a right to sanitize their information on the web. They can now request the search engines to delete old and irrelevant data concerning their personal information which may malign their reputation.
As we know Internet never forget anything, Once an information gets uploaded on the internet it become public for forever. But this new ruling by European Union court gives a person a ‘right to be forgotten’ as according to European Union law it is a person’s right to have control on his information.
However, the request of ‘right to be forgotten’ will depend on various conditions, such as the relevance and sensitivity of the information.
The European Court ruled this verdict in favor of a Spanish man who took Google to court after the search giant refused his request to remove his 16 year old personal information. According toMario Costeja Gonzalez information of his house auctioning due to financial crises pops up in the search and is damaging his current reputation.
Although Google raised a valid point stating that it does not own information on the web but merely provide the link related to the search. But the verdict of European Union Court makes it clear that European countries are becoming more and more concerned about data privacy control.
