“Search engines are not mandatory ge lwa ndexeerde sensitive data to remove

Search engines are not obliged to sensitive data that is ge lwa ndexeerd to remove. because they can’t be seen as the ‘manager’ of the sensitive information as in the Directive, personal data protection is described.

That is to read in an opinion of the attorney-general of the European Court of Justice ruled in a case between Google and the Spanish privacy watch dog Agencia Española de Protección de Datos. According to the advocate general, Google does not, under the European Directive on protection of personal data because the only data of third parties, indexes, and is not required to have sensitive information removed. The data must of course be with the consent of the website owners are indexed.

The case was initiated by a Spanish man who in 1998 was named in a newspaper article, because his house was auctioned due to unpaid debts. In 2009, the man did a request to the newspaper for his name to be removed so the article is no longer in the Google search results appeared when his name was searched. The newspaper refused the article to remove because the order of the ministry of Labour and Social Affairs was placed.

Then knocked the man in to Google with the request that when his name was searched, no links to the newspaper concerned were shown, but that request was by the search giant not granted. This, he complained to the Spanish privacy watch dog, which in turn is a lawsuit started. The Spanish court, the European Court of Justice was asked for a so-called preliminary decision.

It is still an opinion of the attorney-general, but that is usually inherited by the judges of the European Court of Justice the final judgment. That will probably be a few months to happen; the exact date is not fixed yet.