Privacy Vs Censorship: Google, Spanish Government Face Off In European Courts

In a test case that could have significant implications for Google throughout Europe the company faced off against the Spanish data protection authority in the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. One could frame the case as privacy vs. censorship.

From the Spanish governments point of view its data protection authority is simply vindicating the recently articulated right (of individuals) to be forgotten to have content or data about them removed from the search index upon request. From Googles perspective, if the court agrees with Spain, the outcome would be tantamount to granting individuals the right to censor Google.

A concise statement of the underlying facts of the case is provided by Reporters without Borders:

The AEPD rejected Costejas complaint against the newspaper on the grounds that the publication of the information was legal and was protected by the right to information but, with extraordinary inconsistency, upheld his complaint his complaint against Google, ordering the search engine to eliminate about 100 links from all future searches for Costejas name.

Google refused to accept the ruling and filed an appeal . . .

As Google indicated in its blog post, there are roughly 200 cases like this pending in Spain featuring individuals seeking to have content about them removed from search results.

As the factual summary above indicates, Spanish authorities decided that newspapers are protected from these individual takedown requests by a right to information or expression (free speech). However, Google is not being given the same treatment. This is true despite the fact that in earlierdecisions, Google was labeled a publisher for purposes of libel laws.

Google thus gets the liability treatment of a publisher without the corresponding freedom of expression protections accorded to newspapers.

Speaking with someone with knowledge of the European Court proceedings yesterday, I was told that the judges expressed skepticism about at least some of Spains arguments in the case. For example, Spain wants Google to remove the disputed information not just from its Spanish index but from all Google results globally.

I was told that a ruling may not come down for several months. And, like the US Supreme Court, the European judicial body could narrowly rule on the particular facts or broadly articulate principles around the right to be forgotten that might apply across Europe.

See the rest here:
Privacy Vs Censorship: Google, Spanish Government Face Off In European Courts