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Europe rules on cyber-privacy

May 13, 2014

The European Court of Justice has ruled that citizens have a right to request that Google delete their data from search results in a case that sought to see whether private citizens could leave the engine's grid.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Byez
Google
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

In the case, which began in 2011, Spain's data protection authority had ordered Google to remove links to more than 100 online articles the agency considered potentially defamatory in a move that had stoked concerns about freedom of speech and the role of online search engines. On Tuesday, the ECJ affirmed the Spanish court's decision.

Google had previously challenged the decision in a Madrid court, contending that as a search engine it was not responsible for content that appeared on the Web. The Spanish tribunal then sought the advice of the ECJ. Decisions by the court are binding for the whole of the European Union.

In 2012, the European Commission had proposed that citizens be given the right to remove themselves from search engines.

Google is also involved in an dispute with the European Union over alleged anti-competitive practices in its search results.

mkg/rg (AFP, dpa)