ISBA labels ECJ 'right to be forgotten' ruling an 'empty gesture'

"The issue of individual privacy raises serious concerns, but the ECJ ruling was never more than an empty gesture to allay these concerns. We have said from the beginning that implementing a 'right to be forgotten' on request was an implausible and impractical idea which would cost businesses dearly, forcing them to comply with potentially untenable requests or else face substantial fines."

"We are pleased that the House of Lords has come to a similar conclusion and agree with industry that this is a good example of a fundamentally flawed EU ruling. Lady Prashar's point that the directive is now hopelessly outdated is particularly salient, and quite how EU political boundaries can be applied in all seriousness to the world wide web in itself is unclear. The clue is in the title."

ISBA labelled the European Court of Justice's 'right to be forgotten' ruling an empty gesture and called it impractical. The ECJ ruling requires search engines to remove links deemed to be irrelevant information. Google established a web form and has received over 70,000 takedown requests since May. Bing and Yahoo have also set up removal request forms. A House of Lords committee deemed the ruling unworkable, a conclusion supported by ISBA. ISBA warned that implementing the right would be costly to businesses and could force compliance with potentially untenable requests or risk substantial fines.

Read at The Drum