Europe leading on restoration of privacy, Google, Bing and pros and cons...

An ex-politician seeking re-election has asked to have links to an article about his behaviour in office removed. Among the list of many others who have already filed requests with the likes of Google and Bing are: a man convicted of possessing child abuse images - for removal of links about his conviction, a doctor wants negative reviews from patients removed.

The original case, which was successful and  resulted in the landmark ruling from the European Court of Justice, was brought by a Spanish man who complained that an auction notice of his repossessed home on Google's search results had infringed his privacy.

Google itself has not commented on the so-called right-to-be-forgotten ruling since it described the the European Court of Justice judgement as being "disappointing".

Nor has Google released any figures about the number of takedown requests received since Tuesday's ruling.

EU Commissioner Viviane Reding described the decision as "a clear victory for the protection of personal data of Europeans" but others are concerned about the consequences that it will have for 'free speech.'

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has criticised the ruling, calling it "astonishing." 

Some are arguing that the ECJ decision, (which is binding upon every one of the 28 member nations of the European Union (with a total population of 510,000,00 persons or roughly 200,000 more than the USA)), implies that an individual's desires outweigh society's interest in the complete facts around incidents......but really??? I think the ruling relates primarily (if not singularly) to defunct or obsolete information remaining on the world wide web?

Marc Dautlich, a prominent lawyer in this area of law, at well-known international law firm Pinsent Masons, said that search engines might find the new rules hard to implement....that nevertheless should not be an excuse for any failure to do so!

Whatever the arguments for and against, it is now law! In any case, it would seem difficult to deny that it is high time that some lines be drawn in the sand!