Google’s claims that the EU “right to be forgotten” ruling would cause mayhem appear to have backfired after it was revealed there have been just a couple of hundred appeals against over 250,000 take-down requests.
The UK leads the way in the appeals process, with the Information Commissioner’s Office receiving 90 objections, meanwhile 70 appeals have been received by privacy regulators in Spain, 20 in France and 13 in Ireland.
The move comes as EU regulators have agreed on criteria for assessing take-down requests at a two-day meeting in Brussels. The regulators agreed that factors such as time passed since the information had been published, public profile of the person involved or whether it was related to a crime, should be taken into consideration. The final guidelines will be published in November.
The so-called “Article 29 Working Party” – the body which represents all data protection authorities in the EU – has agreed a contact person at each national authority will ensure that appeals are handled consistently across the 28 member states.
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, who heads France’s privacy watchdog and the Working Party, said: “We want the toolbox to guide difficult decisions on how to balance the individual’s right to privacy in the Internet age against the public interest.”
The issue has already put the UK privacy regulator on a collision course with the Government after the ICO claimed the ruling it is working well in practice.
The ICO’s intervention followed a report by the House of Lords European Union Committee – which is supported by Justice Minister Simon Hughes and the Coalition government – which claimed the legislation was “unworkable”.
But deputy Information Commissioner David Smith has hit back, saying: ”We were disappointed by the recent report [from the House of Lords] on the ‘right to be forgotten’. We agree with the Committee that the expression ‘right to be forgotten’ is misleading but criticism of the judgment as unworkable is misplaced, as the initial stages of its implementation have already shown.”
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Limited appeals make Google take-down row ‘storm in teacup’ http://t.co/uUbGhgc8Ps #dataprotection #data #search