Internet search engine operators must remove links to outdated personal data from their results pages, the European Union’s top court ruled on Tuesday, in a case brought by Google against the Spanish data protection authorities.
The case relates to a Spanish man whose name was published in a newspaper in 1998 as the owner of a property to be auctioned off because of debts. Links to this information continued to appear in Google searches for his name.
Since 2009, the man has attempted to have the online information erased, arguing that the proceedings had concluded many years previously and were no longer relevant.
Spain’s data protection agency sided with him in 2010, ordering Google to remove the links. The internet giant appealed, and a Spanish court turned to the European Court of Justice for advice.
But the ECJ decided that, under EU law, an internet search engine operator “is responsible for the processing that it carries out of personal data which appear on its web pages” – including material that has already been published in the media.
“This information potentially concerns a vast number of aspects of (an individual’s) private life,” the court wrote, adding, “Internet users may thereby establish a more or less detailed profile of the person searched against.” This interferes with a person’s fundamental rights, the court found, adding that people should be able to request the removal of links to “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” information.
“In the light of its potential seriousness, such interference cannot ... be justified by merely the economic interest which the operator of the engine has in the data processing,” the judges wrote.
At the same time, they wrote that a “fair balance” should be sought between an individual’s right to privacy and data protection, and the “legitimate interest of internet users potentially interested in having access to that information.” The decision comes despite a recommendation last year by one of the ECJ’s top lawyers that search engine operators should not be held responsible for information thrown up in their results. Judges generally follow the advice of their advocate generals.