Does the EU's 'Right to Be Forgotten' Go Too Far?

Last week, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that a 36-word article from 1998 describing Spanish man Mario Costeja González’ social-security debts and subsequent repossession of his home will no longer be linked to González’ person in Google search results.

While the court recognized that the newspaper had acted in the public interest in reporting the news, it also found Google’s link to the article in its search results represented an infringement of González’ privacy and “right to be forgotten.”

The Guardian said the ECJ ruling has “huge implications, and is hugely contentious,” potentially burdening online businesses and leading to tech giants closing European offices to escape the law’s reach — even before considering its freedom of speech verbiage.

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