Does the EU’s right to be forgotten extend to the whole world?  The French data protection authority, CNIL, says yes and wants search engines to delist search results which contain information that violates the European Union’s right to be forgotten – not just for French users, not just for European users, but for all users everywhere. Google is prepared to remove offending search results for European users, but balks at removing material globally just because European courts find that it violates European privacy rules. 

In a significant ruling, earlier this month, the European Court of Justice ruled that an individual’s privacy interest in limiting the disclosure of personal information does not generally override the interest in public disclosure about company officials. The ruling protects the public interest in transparency about governance of public companies; preserves the capacity of stock holders to assess companies accurately and protect their legal rights with respect to them; and reaffirms the legitimacy of data processor access to personal information in public data bases about companies.

Yesterday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down its decision on the Schrems Case, a lawsuit against Facebook regarding data privacy.  The court’s decision determined that the U.S. – EU Safe Harbor Agreement is invalid.  This decision will create legal uncertainty for over 4,400 companies in the Safe Harbor as they may no longer use the Safe Harbor as a basis for transferring data between the United States and the European Union.  Upon news of the decision, SIIA issued its comments to voice deep concern about its effects on data flows and digital trade.

Yesterday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) handed down its decision on the Schrems Case, a lawsuit against Facebook regarding data privacy.  The court’s decision determined that the U.S. – EU Safe Harbor Agreement is invalid.  This decision will create legal uncertainty for over 4,400 companies in the Safe Harbor as they may no longer use the Safe Harbor as a basis for transferring data between the United States and the European Union.  Upon news of the decision, SIIA issued its comments to voice deep concern about its effects on data flows and digital trade.

On February 6, 2015, the Advisory Council to Google on the Right to be Forgotten released its report.  Convened to advise Google on how to implement the European Court of Justice’s right to be forgotten decision from May 2014, the Council’s independent members recommended that search engines maintain limited transparency of their delisting decisions and restrict deletions to European search engines.