wednesday, May 14, 2014
going nowhere?
Minutes stake a claim Music
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Election special Transport in Dublin
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Just a little bit of history deleting Google told it must wipe your past from the web
GOOGLE has been told to ‘rewrite history’ by deleting web links which might upset or embarrass anyone. The internet giant yesterday lost a European court battle which granted a complainant the ‘right to be forgotten’. It means Google or other search engines, such as Bing and Yahoo!, could be forced to remove some results when certain names are searched. Privacy campaigners welcomed the principle that links to out-of-date or incorrect information might be deleted but others warned that it could be used to cover up wrongdoing and stifle free speech. Big Brother Watch said: ‘If we start to make intermediaries responsible for the actions or the content of other people, you’re establishing a model that leads to greater surveillance and a risk of censorship.’ The ruling, which cannot be appealed, follows a complaint brought by Spaniard Mario Costeja Gonzalez. He was upset when a Google search for his name brought up a link to a 1998 story about unpaid debts that he says have long since been settled.
by aidan radnedge The court ruled individuals should be able to request irrelevant or incorrect personal information be removed from search engine results, rejecting Google’s view that it only provided links and was not responsible for what users found when they clicked on them. Google called it ‘a disappointing ruling for search engines and online publishers in general’. The European Commission is considering a formal ‘right to be forgotten’ law to enshrine the rights recommended yesterday. Irish digital rights solicitor Simon McGarr said the full consequences of the ruling will take time to work out. As each request will be decided upon individually ‘we can expect considerable sparring across the EU before we have a clear idea of where the lines are to be drawn’. ‘Given that the European HQ of the biggest data driven companies (including Google) are located in Ireland, it is likely that this jurisdiction will see a disproportionally high number of those tussles,’ he said.
‘A model that risks censorship’
A TALL ORDER: A five-day old male Rothschild giraffe, standing at 1.7m, makes his first outside appearance in Dublin Zoo, where he was born last Wednesday to experienced parents Maeve and Robin
Keep Dublin tidy – Please recycle this Metro Herald when you are finished with it