By Tequila Moncrieff 36203

THE RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN

The right to be forgotten as recently came in to ruling, it brings about a law of privacy
for individuals looking to have personal information about themselves remove from the
internet, providing that the information being deleted is not in the interest of the public.
Search engine such as Google, have a responsibility to delete links containing
personal data about individuals (www.igniyte.co.uk, 2014)

Recent reports about the ruling as however has manage to cause some outrage within
the British public, with some people not yet having a clear understanding that data
pertaining matters of the public, would always be available on the web and will be link
to search engines and may never be consider as part of the right to be forgotten.

These are data including cases such as, the 2007 convicted murderer and sex
offender Ronald Castree, whom had committed crimes dating back more than 30
years ago, when he had sexually assaulted and stabbed 11 year old Lesley Susan
Molseed a dozen times causing her death back in 1975. Ronald Castree, who was
sentence to life, is now imprisoned and has no right to be forgotten, information about
him will forever remain on the internet. (Peltz-Steele, 2014) (Burrows, 2014)

The right to be forgotten came about on 13 of May 2014 when the court of justice of
the European Union (CJEU), made a ruling on the relevancy of the provisions of the
1995 Data Protection Directive to search engine results.

The court state that links to irrelevant and outdated information, should and must be
erased upon the request of an individual or anyone representing that individual, for
example, a solicitor working on behalf of the person whose data is made available to
the public which there is no cause for concern.

The ruling came about after a large number of people complain continuously that they
felt somewhat violated that there had been a breach of privacy pertaining that of their
private affairs, made accessible to anyone who wanted to see the information through
the use of the internet.

Celebrating the European court of justice decision, are the many people who
requested that unnecessary, irrelevant and out of date information surfing around on
the internet was in fact hindering any forthcoming opportunities they may have had
(www.parliament.uk, 2014)

The law on the right to be forgotten allows people to ask Google to remove some types
of information about themselves from its search index. Following the ruling, Google
has set up a form on its site that now enable people to request which links should be

taken down, This action taken by Google, came as a result after facing some legal
battles with members of the public (Lee, 2014)

One case in particular was brought by a man call Mario Costeja Gonzalez who had
incur some financial difficulties, and as a result had in fact lost the familys home back
in 1998. After facing these pass issues, Mr Gonzalez were keen to move forward,
however, Mario Gonzalez felt unable to do so.

The reason for this was because anyone could type Gonzalezs name in Googles
search engine and would find information about the auction, despite the fact that this
had occur sixteen years ago and were irrelevant data to anyone surfing the net, the
information of Mario Costeja Gonzalezs repossessed home and financial difficulties
were on googles link and were still features prominently.

After making a formal complain that the auction of the Gonzalezs repossessed home
on Googles search results infringed Marios privacy. Mario Costeja Gonzalez, later
decided to take google to court in order to have the search results removed (Lee,
2014)

The Mario Costeja Gonzalez case was just one of many which saw more and more
people making the decision to come forward, voicing their concerns and speaking out
about the intrusion on which they felt had been place upon their privacy. Stating that
they have what is now known and enforce by the court of justice of the European Union

(CJEU) as the right to be forgotten. Requesting that out of date as well as irrelevant
information put available to the public about themselves on search engines be deleted.
(www.theguardian.com, 2014)

It is well within the right of every individual to live a happy and stress-free life, without
having the worries of their past history looming about on the internet, feeling a sense
of violation, in terms of having personal and private matter about themselves available
worldwide, particularly cases that is not in any way or will ever be beneficial to that of
the public.

Negative search engine result can lead to individuals having to deal with unpleasant
consequences, whether that means missing out on a job or having to face rather
embarrassing questions from friends or love ones, this will of course seem unfair
where the information coming up against your name is misleading or just simply very
old.

Thanks to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling, such results could

constitute a breach of data protection rights. As such people are now able to seek
their removal. (www.brettwilson.co.uk, 2014)

References
Burrows, T. ,. C., 2014. www.dailymail.co.uk. [Online]
Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2770597/Father-murder-victimsays-killer-no-right-forgotten-MailOnline-article-hidden-Google-EU-s-right-forgottenstory.html
[Accessed 21 November 2014].
Lee, D., 2014. www.bbc.co.uk. [Online]
Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29658085
[Accessed 22 November 2014].
Lee, D., 2014. www.bbc.co.uk. [Online]
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[Accessed 9 November 2014].
Peltz-Steele, R., 2014. www.washingtonpost.com. [Online]
Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-right-to-be-forgottenonline-is-really-a-right-to-be-forgiven/2014/11/21/2801845c-669a-11e4-9fdcd43b053ecb4d_story.html
[Accessed 22 November 2014].
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[Accessed 22 November 2014].
www.igniyte.co.uk, 2014. www.igniyte.co.uk. [Online]
Available at: http://www.igniyte.co.uk/online-reputation-management/right-to-beforgotten/
[Accessed 9 November 2014].
www.parliament.uk, 2014. www.parliament.uk. [Online]
Available at: www.parliament.uk/right-to-be-forgotten
[Accessed 9 November 2014].
www.theguardian.com, 2014. www.theguardian.com. [Online]
Available at: www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/08/the-right-to-be-forgottenthe-road-ahead
[Accessed 22 November 2014].