search engines

On July 22, 2019, the Italian supervisory authority for data protection (“Garante”) issued a judgment involving the so-called “right to be forgotten”.  The Garante’s decision explores the boundaries of this right in a case in which Internet users could access an article by using a professional position as a search term, whereas it was not possible to access the article merely by using an individual’s name as a search term.

More specifically, the case before the Garante involved a professional, namely the president of a cooperative, who requested that Google remove a link to online content about him accessible by Internet users.  The content was accessible not by entering the individual’s name as a search term, but rather by entering his position as president of the cooperative, an association that serves the interests of members, i.e., social or economic needs or other general aims.Continue Reading Italian Supervisory Authority Issues Judgment Concerning ‘Right to be Forgotten’

On 25 June, the Advocate General (the “AG”) submitted an Opinion on a set of questions that a Spanish court referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “Court”). This is the first time that the Court has been asked to interpret the European Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC (the ‘Directive’) in the context of internet search engines. The questions concern three main issues:

  • the territorial scope of and the applicable national law under the Directive;
  • whether search engine providers are data controllers; and,
  • whether there is a right to be forgotten.

The proceedings were triggered by an individual who was the subject of some press reports in a newspaper in early 1998. In 2010, he requested Google Spain not to show any links to the newspaper when users entered his name in the Google search engine. The publisher, whom the individual also contacted, refused to erase the relevant data. The individual therefore lodged a complaint with the Spanish data protection authority, which subsequently ordered Google Spain and Google Inc. to take the measures necessary to withdraw the data from their index and to render future access to the data impossible. Google appealed the decision to a Spanish court, which referred the aforementioned questions to the Court for a preliminary ruling.Continue Reading Advocate General Submits Opinion in Google Spain Case