14 DAY TRIAL // The European Court of Justice has left Google baffled about how to handle the “right to be forgotten,” namely a decision that allows anyone to demand that Google remove links to articles that are no longer relevant about them.
As the company tries to find a solution to the problem, requests keep pouring in from all corners, putting Google in a delicate situation.
The decision taken by the European Court of Justice earlier this month indicates that the company must respond to complains about private information that shows up in searches. The company must then decide whether the information is still relevant and if the public should be given its right to be able to find the information.
The Court has given people a workaround if Google rejects their proposals, saying that judges will also take a look at demands that were set aside.
“The ruling has significant implications for how we handle takedown requests. This is logistically complicated, not least because of the many languages involved and the need for careful review. As soon as we have thought through exactly how this will work, which may take several weeks, we will let our users know,” Google spokesman Al Verney told AP.
Of course, Google isn’t the only company that will have to go through this entire motion. In fact, the rules apply to all search engines used within the European Union, including Microsoft’s Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuck Go or any other. Google, however, accounts for about 90 percent of all searches performed in the area, which makes it the one to take the biggest hit.
The American users of Google won’t be seeing the same thing, however, since the company has no obligation to start removing links in the search results all over the world. In fact, this doesn’t even seem to be something that’s desired in the United States.
“Americans will find their searches bowdlerized by prissy European sensibilities. We’ll be the big losers. The big winners will be French ministers who want the right to have their last mistress forgotten,” said Stewart Baker, former assistant secretary for policy at the US Department of Homeland Security.
Of course, he does have a point since some of the first demands that Google received were exactly what everyone would expect – a politician looking to make forgotten an opinion he once had as he tries to get reelected and a criminal trying to make his past forgotten. From here on out, many decisions that Google will have to make will certainly be from the same range.
Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales has expressed his concerns about the decision. Considering that Wikipedia deals with recording history within its pages, the question remains just how long it will be until the encyclopedia is requested to hide the past of those who ask for it.