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20 June 2014 / Dan Tench
Issue: 7611 / Categories: Features , Data protection , Freedom of Information
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Slipping the net

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Dan Tench assesses the implications of the right to be forgotten ruling in Google Spain

It has become a regular aspect of modern life to use internet search engines to look for and collate biographical information relating to other people. The purpose of such searches can range from commercial interest to journalistic investigation to idle curiosity.

Search engines called into question

The judgment from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on 13 May in Google Spain [2014] EUECJ C-131/12 called into question the legality of European-established search engines collating personal information and then facilitating such searches.

The case arose after a complaint that was brought against Google (that is the Spanish subsidiary and the US parent company) by a Spanish man, Sr Mario Costeja González, to the Spanish Data Protection Authority, the AEPD. His complaint related to the continued availability of information regarding certain unpaid debts that was published in a newspaper in Spain in the late 1990s including in its online version (where it continued to be available). The

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