Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

France Tells Google To Remove "Right To Be Forgotten" Search Results Worldwide

Posted by samzenpus on from the clean-slate dept.

An anonymous reader writes: France's data protection authority rejected Google's appeal to limit how a European privacy ruling may be applied worldwide. Since the European Court ruling last year Google has handled close to 320,000 requests, but only de-lists the links on European versions of its sites. "Contrary to what Google has stated, this decision does not show any willingness on the part of the C.N.I.L. to apply French law extraterritorially," the agency said in a statement.

13 of 381 comments (clear)

  1. Considering how fast Google ditched China by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    With China being a MUCH bigger market and all, I could see Google just outright leaving France if it came down to it. Maybe Jacques Chirac would finally get his wish of a French owned search engine.

    1. Re:Considering how fast Google ditched China by Schmorgluck · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's a EU-wide policy that the CNIL is merely spearheading.

      --
      There's nothing like $HOME
    2. Re: Considering how fast Google ditched China by cyber-vandal · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Who do they think they are? Americans?

    3. Re:Considering how fast Google ditched China by aaaaaaargh! · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As a European who is generally very fond of the European Union, I'm truly ashamed about this "right to be forgotten". Whenever I see a link removed, I use a proxy to switch to Google US and I've seen countless abuses of the system. Many of the search results that are removed are clearly in the public interest.

      I cannot believe that there is no discussion about this at higher levels of the EU. If France got this right world-wide, why not Russia, China, Saudia Arabia, or Nigeria? This regulation makes no sense whatsoever. The judges who decided in favour of it must be mentally retarded.

    4. Re:Considering how fast Google ditched China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      To be fair, there is actually some sanity to the French ruling.

      Putting aside the argument about whether people like the level of data protection citizens in Europe get or not, the fact is that Google breached European data protection law - that is not in doubt, that is what the original "right to be forgotten" ruling is about - I put right to be forgotten in quotes, because none of this has anything to do with the right to be forgotten, that's a new thing that's being written and not even in law yet, quite why Google and the media are desperate to get that wrong all the fucking time I've no idea, but it is what it is.

      Google's breach was purely about the European Data Protection Directive and it's national implementations, given that we know Google breached European law in this area, it's also worth pointing out that Google should not have had this personal data in the first place. Under the Data Protection Directive, simply censoring it in one jurisdiction is not sufficient remedy, the law is clear, if Google is informed that it has data that is incorrect, no longer relevant, and it holds that data under no protective clause (e.g. law enforcement), then it must correct or remove this data - there's no "Oh it's okay, we've moved it offshore to America" - that in itself is illegal if it shouldn't be holding the data in the first place.

      This isn't just about Google, ALL companies wishing to operate in Europe and hold personal data fall under the exact same set of rules, it's only Google that seems to have a problem with it for whatever reason. But right or wrong, the fact is that simply censoring search results jurisdiction by jurisdiction was clearly never a valid legal remedy to the problem. It's not surprising that a court has pointed this out to Google - Google needs to understand that if it wants to operate in Europe, then any personal data it holds on Europeans must be protected to the exact same standards as every other company in Europe is expected to and largely does treat it. Oddly, I notice Google puts a blanket note saying some results may be censored on ANY search for a name on Google whether results are censored or not. It's odd that they do that when say, they only list DMCA takedown notices where a search result brings one up.

      Honestly, the fact Google is so alone in desperately fighting this one I'm genuinely beginning to wonder if there's some truth in the conspiracy theories about Google being an NSA data harvesting tool. The massively organised propaganda campaign it's creating on this one, whilst every other company operating in Europe manages to deal with the law without any issue is weird to say the least.

    5. Re:Considering how fast Google ditched China by tlambert · · Score: 4, Informative

      I cannot believe that there is no discussion about this at higher levels of the EU.

      The real problem here is that:

      (1) They haven't judicially defined what constitutes public interest -- because they can't because it's subjective, and making such a decision would piss everyone off and demonstrate the absurdity of the law. So there's no legal test for yes/no.

      (2) France is still being pissy, and this is retaliation for the whole "media thing" that France had hoped to impose on YouTube and Google Play.

      (3) They know that they can't win, so they're dragging their feet. It makes the politicians look like they are doing something, without actually having to really do something.

      (4) They are laying the groundwork for a closed-door advisor position, whose job will be to write reports and justify why "it doesn't apply in this case" decisions, and then collect their paycheck.

      (5) As soon as the problem is closed door, it effectively goes away, because there's no longer any public leverage.

      (6) Then the worst that can happen is "an investigation of the department of investigation", which they can pretend takes as long as they want to/can push off the issue, and then conclude that there was no wrongdoing.

      Problem solved. Back to business as usual.

    6. Re:Considering how fast Google ditched China by beanpoppa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Except the page is not removed. Only the search engine's index to the page it removed. If there truly is a right to be forgotten, why is the EU not going after the source?

    7. Re: Considering how fast Google ditched China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's insightful because America is notorious for applying its own laws extraterritorially, ie inside other countries. American judges truly believe that what they have to say should apply to all people on earth. The French are merely copying the principle. Expect other countries to follow as well. Turnabout is fair play and all that.

    8. Re: Considering how fast Google ditched China by penguinoid · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's insightful because America is notorious for applying its own laws extraterritorially, ie inside other countries. The French are merely copying the principle.

      Then maybe France should try becoming the world's superpower, before trying to act like one.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  2. French Law extraterritorially by jader3rd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If removing the results worldwide isn't apply French Law extraterritorially, what is it?

  3. google did it in a wrong way by jarkus4 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google just removed the results from some local domains (fr, co.uk etc), but left it working for com domain. Basically it means they failed at delisting since EU citizen can still easily avoid it. Instead they should comply by doing some kind of geoip delisting as then they would be really compliant within EU jurisdiction.

  4. Typical sensationalist Slashdot subjectline by luvirini · · Score: 4, Informative

    The French do not try to apply them worldwide.

    They want Google to apply them to all searched from France regardless of the domain name. Today you can just type in google.com or any other national domain and bypass the law.

  5. Go limp by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd go limp: "We'll comply with your request. Please send us the contact information for the service that you'll accept as authoritative for whether or not a request from a particular IP address originates in France or not. We'll also require a binding agreement that the determination of this service cannot be contested by either Google or the French government, and that if any third party demonstrates that the service made an incorrect determination use of that service will be discontinued and the French government shall not demand compliance from Google until the French government has selected a new authority. Until we are in receipt of this information and agreement, Google will unfortunately be unable to operate the French-localized Google site and will be unable to serve search results for France or any French entity or person. Have a nice day.".