EU court forces Google to remove links to personal data upon request

By Justin Kahn
After having several problems with privacy groups in Europe, most recently with the data protection office in Germany, The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) has now ordered Mountain View to allow users to request the removal of particular links in search results.
The ECJ recently ruled that Mountain View is responsible for offering links to personal data appearing on other sites, and will act as a liaison between concerned individuals and Google in order to have particular information removed from search results. While nothing is set into law at this point, the court ruled that those who want their name removed from search results can simply approach the "operator directly," and if that doesn't work, go through the courts instead.
The ruling was on the back of several requests to have links removed from search results, but Google had thus far refused to do so, forcing the ECJ to get involved. Google has long argued that this sort of mandate is a form of censorship, but the ECJ backed the European Commission and ruled that individuals have the right to be forgotten.
In several statements regarding the ruling, Google has said that it is very disappointed by the decision and is surprised as to why it went so dramatically different than a preliminary ruling last year that for the most part went in its favor. The ruling can't be appealed by Google being that it came from the highest court in the European Union, according to reports.
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