

Europe: 1, Google: 0: EU Court Ruling a Victory for Privacy - isthatyou
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/court-imposes-right-to-be-forgotten-on-google-search-results-a-970419.html

======
cbeach
Arbitrary censorship on demand is a victory for privacy. At great cost.

~~~
coldtea
This has nothing to do with censorship and everything to do with privacy.

You don't have any "right" to other people's personal information -- much less
for an eternity.

This is not about preventing journalists from disclosing scandals, corrupt
politicians, corporations and the like.

It's about normal people (all 7 billion of them) not having to live with their
spring break crazy-time pictures, their extra-marital affair or that stupid
stuff they said when they were 16 and listened to death metal online well into
their sixties.

~~~
yuhong
Are things like removing results from search engines really the right solution
to the problem?

~~~
coldtea
Well, what else could there be? People behaving better at all times and never
doing anything they'll regret being known later?

Sure, removing results from search engines is not a 100% solution (people
could still find the stuff from elsewhere, e.g links on a blog or a newssite,
if they are so determined).

But it's a working 99% solution. Most people data would be non retrievable and
languish into extinction. You don't have to make something impossible to
discourage people from doing it. You can just make it a little harder.

Removing your old data from Google, FB etc, is a huge boost in giving one's
past a clean slate. Heck, even for murderers there's a "statute of
limitations". Why should the "star wars kid" be forever "that idiot you did
that when he was 10 years old"?

~~~
yuhong
_Well, what else could there be? People behaving better at all times and never
doing anything they 'll regret being known later?_

Not what I am thinking of. There are even better solutions than this, like
people researching things properly.

