Those are legitimate concerns. How about the cases when a politician said something racist/bigoted 10 years ago. He wants them expunged now because his views are different. How do you differentiate political convenience from legitimate change in views?
Also to clarify the two points you've mentioned
Google does not generate the data. The data has to be public somewhere. If google is not doing the indexing, some other search engine is doing it. Even if the search engines did not exist, a motivated stalker will still find the public address.
> Is it 'fair' that the person's name immediately turns up their arrest record as the #1 result? Well, 'fair' and having done 10 years in prison don't really add up.
If it is not fair, the data should not be public. It is the law enforcement's fault to make such information public.
There is another argument that can be made here as well. What if the person who went to Jail was a significant person ? Should he have the right to ask a historian to ignore his past crimes when a biography is being written ?
I originally said this was a grey area because there will be cases where this is a good reason and there will be cases when this is a terrible idea. However asking the search engines to ignore public data is most definitely treating the symptoms instead of looking at the broader problem.
If you said something in a public forum, you can't have it expunged. You can address previous remarks, you can state a thousand times that you were wrong, but it cannot and should not be expunged.
I don't see why someone's arrest record should be hidden unless they were exonerated or there were specific circumstances for doing so.
We're not asking search engines to ignore public data. The EU is telling search engines to ignore incorrect/defamatory data because the EU doesn't have the protection laws that the U.S. has.
> I don't see why someone's arrest record should be hidden unless they were exonerated or there were specific circumstances for doing so.
The problem you aren't getting is that for the poor and anyone who can't afford a lawyer...this doesn't happen. The exceptions are notable nationwide media coverage types.
I am not sure what you are referring to. I was talking about the laws in relation to the original comment, which was related to whether the 'right to be forgotten' was a good law or a bad law.
I never said anything remotely related to whether it was administered correctly or not, or how effective it was in any way.
Also to clarify the two points you've mentioned
Google does not generate the data. The data has to be public somewhere. If google is not doing the indexing, some other search engine is doing it. Even if the search engines did not exist, a motivated stalker will still find the public address.
> Is it 'fair' that the person's name immediately turns up their arrest record as the #1 result? Well, 'fair' and having done 10 years in prison don't really add up.
If it is not fair, the data should not be public. It is the law enforcement's fault to make such information public.
There is another argument that can be made here as well. What if the person who went to Jail was a significant person ? Should he have the right to ask a historian to ignore his past crimes when a biography is being written ?
I originally said this was a grey area because there will be cases where this is a good reason and there will be cases when this is a terrible idea. However asking the search engines to ignore public data is most definitely treating the symptoms instead of looking at the broader problem.