The Right To Be Forgotten Essay Jan 2015
The Right to be Forgotten
Introduction
The Right to be Forgotten is one the newest principles of data protection recognised in the EU and it is proving to be quite controversial. This essay will briefly look at the legal position in the United States of America before examining the Google Spain decision, the proposed Data Protection reform, reactions to the right to be forgotten and the possible implications for social networks.
Legal Position in the USA
If the name ‘Nikki Catsouras’ is searched in Google Images the resulting pictures are gruesome.1 Catsouras was 18 years old when she crashed her father’s sports car into a toll booth in California on October 31st 2006.2 Catsouras was decapitated in the accident and her injuries were so horrific that the coroner refused to allow her parents to identify her body. California Highway Patrol sealed off the area and took photographs of the accident.3 Nine photographs of the accident then began circulating on the Internet after two officers emailed them to friends and family on Halloween for “shock value” and the images were eventually sent to the deceased’s father.4 The Catsouras family began legal proceedings to have the images removed from the Internet. Although the court found that the images were not “legitimate public concern or newsworthiness”5 and that privacy law had been violated, the images remain online because the US has never recognised a right to be forgotten. In Florida Star v. BJF the US Supreme Court ruled that laws that restrict the media from publishing information that subjects may wish to conceal as long as the information is truthful and legally obtained.6
European Union Legal Position
The European Union’s attitude towards the Right to be Forgotten is completely different from the US position. The earliest traces of this right in Europe can be found in French Law. ‘Le Droit á L’Oubli’ or the Right to Oblivion allowed criminals who had served their time to object to the publication of facts of
Introduction
The Right to be Forgotten is one the newest principles of data protection recognised in the EU and it is proving to be quite controversial. This essay will briefly look at the legal position in the United States of America before examining the Google Spain decision, the proposed Data Protection reform, reactions to the right to be forgotten and the possible implications for social networks.
Legal Position in the USA
If the name ‘Nikki Catsouras’ is searched in Google Images the resulting pictures are gruesome.1 Catsouras was 18 years old when she crashed her father’s sports car into a toll booth in California on October 31st 2006.2 Catsouras was decapitated in the accident and her injuries were so horrific that the coroner refused to allow her parents to identify her body. California Highway Patrol sealed off the area and took photographs of the accident.3 Nine photographs of the accident then began circulating on the Internet after two officers emailed them to friends and family on Halloween for “shock value” and the images were eventually sent to the deceased’s father.4 The Catsouras family began legal proceedings to have the images removed from the Internet. Although the court found that the images were not “legitimate public concern or newsworthiness”5 and that privacy law had been violated, the images remain online because the US has never recognised a right to be forgotten. In Florida Star v. BJF the US Supreme Court ruled that laws that restrict the media from publishing information that subjects may wish to conceal as long as the information is truthful and legally obtained.6
European Union Legal Position
The European Union’s attitude towards the Right to be Forgotten is completely different from the US position. The earliest traces of this right in Europe can be found in French Law. ‘Le Droit á L’Oubli’ or the Right to Oblivion allowed criminals who had served their time to object to the publication of facts of