The Right to Be Forgotten : Privacy and the Media in the Digital Age

THE RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN ## RISJ CHALLENGES CHALLENGES present findings, analysis, and recommendations from Oxford's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. The Institute is dedicated to the rigorous, international comparative study of journalism, in all its forms and on all continents. CHALLENGES muster evidence and research to take forward an important argument, beyond the mere expression of opinions. Each text is carefully reviewed by an editorial committee, drawing where necessary on the advice of leading experts in the relevant fields. CHALLENGES remain, however, the work of authors writing in their individual capacities, not a collective expression of views from the Institute. people knew much about data protection law and especially about this aspect of it. The 'right to be forgotten' is only one part of data protection but its workings deserve to be much better known and debated. The question of whether the law should require personal information to be delisted by search engines (or deleted altogether) sits at the new, shifting, and disputed border between free speech and privacy in the online world. Battles over privacy have now become struggles over digital information rights. A new dispensation between freedom of information and rights to protect privacy and reputation is being hammered out in courts and political systems across the world. The search for a way to manage this collision of rights did not start with the Google Spain case, but that judgment tilted, polarised and fired up the debate. Digital technology, by making possible vastly greater creation, storage, and search of information, poses new questions about free speech, privacy, and rights of rectification. Timeless values need to be applied in new contexts. This study examines the origins of, and fallout from, Google Spain and questions whether the balance is being struck in the right place. Any intervention at the junction of journalism, law, and technology should be closely examined and monitored. Journalism also plays a role in public memory. Exactly how much do we want to be able to recall? How do we determine what that is? Free speech and privacy have been colliding for centuries. Rights which clash often cannot be reconciled; they can only be balanced by reasoning from the facts of a case. The debate over the 'right to be forgotten' opens a window on our attempts to adapt long-established values and principles to the online world. It poses questions for law and democracy raised by globalisation and instant communication. The issue is not only the competition of free speech and privacy but of discovery, historical memory, forgetting, the integrity of the public record, the right to know, and forgiveness. We are gradually assembling the conventions, software code and laws of a new public sphere. The basic questions asked in the Google Spain case were: can Google's search algorithm cause harm? If so, what should be done? Much of the immediate reaction to the case was overblown: it was not legal authority for the neuralyser or real-life Winston Smiths. The fact that people overreacted to the judgment does not mean that the European Court issued a good decision, nor does it mean that there are no future risks to "The human race now creates, distributes and stores more information than at any other time in history. Frictionless and cheap digital networks circulate information in ways which either authors or subjects are unable to trace or control. Servers store data which can be found on the world wide web years after it has ceased to be accurate or relevant to its original use. These developments have given rise to a movement promoting a 'right to be forgotten': an argument that freedom of expression should be balanced by a right to erase information which affects an individual, under certain conditions. Rights to privacy therefore need extending and strengthening in the digital era. This strand of thinking influenced a significant judgment delivered by the European Court of Justice in May 2014. As a result, the dominant internet search engine in Europe, Google, has been required to remove links to hundreds of thousands of pieces of information on application from individuals who considered their interests harmed. We know very little of how these delinking choices are made. This book looks at the implications of this controversial decision for free expression, journalism and information in the digital public sphere. Two rights, free speech and privacy, collide in a new way in age of information saturation. Is the judgment a threat to freedom of information and the accuracy of the historical record or the first step in establishing essential new rights in the digital era"--Back cover. The human race now creates, distributes and stores more information than at any other time in history. Frictionless and cheap digital networks circulate information in ways which either authors or subjects are unable to trace or control. Servers store data which can be found on the world wide web years after it has ceased to be accurate or relevant to its original use. These developments have given rise to a movement promoting a 'right to be forgotten': an argument that freedom of expression should be balanced by a right to erase information which affects an individual, under certain conditions. Rights to privacy therefore need extending and strengthening in the digital era. This strand of thinking influenced a significant judgement delivered by the European Court of Justice in May 2014. As a result, the dominant internet search engine in Europe, Google, has been required to remove links to hundreds of thousands of pieces of information on application from individuals who considered their interests harmed. We know very little of how these delinking choices are made.This book looks at the implications of this controversial decision for free expression, journalism and information in the digital public sphere. Two rights-free speech and privacy-collide in a new way in age of information saturation. Is the judgement a threat to freedom of information and the accuracy of the historical record or the first step in establishing essential new rights in the digital era. Cover Page Editorial Committee Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents About the Author Acknowledgements 1. Law, Power, and the Hyperlink 2. The Search Society 3. Striking the Balance 4. Google Spain 5. Reactions and consequences 6. Beyond Europe 7. New law: The General data Protection Regulation 8. Alternative Approaches 9. Conclusions: The Future Notes Bibliography Index