Top European Court Elaborates on Right to Be Forgotten for Sensitive Data

September 26, 2019

In G.C. and Others v. CNIL the Court of Justice for the European Union has ruled a search engine operator must balance rights to determine whether to remove sensitive data – such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs – from search results. Users brought suit against the CNIL after the French DPA declined to order Google to delist their sensitive data. The European Court ruled that a search engine operator which receives a request to de-list sensitive data must weigh the requester’s rights of privacy and data protection against the rights to freedom of information of internet users. EPIC publication “The Right to be Forgotten on the Internet: Google v. Spain,” an account of the original case written by former Spanish Privacy Commissioner Artemi Rallo, is available in the EPIC bookstore.

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