The European Court has ruled that search engines are “responsible for processing personal data which appears on web pages published by third parties”. This means that if you don’t like Google’s search results about you, you can ask for their removal. But is this how it should be?
There are some caveats to the above rule. The person making the demand for privacy must show that the search results are:
- inadequate – e.g. shows extreme bias, doesn’t have enough detail
- irrelevant – e.g. flippant, pointless
- no longer relevant – e.g. if someone was a member of a Hello! Kitty fansite 15 years ago
- excessive in relation to their purposes or in the light of the time that has elapsed – e.g. there are lots of results for said Hello! Kitty fansite, and not much else
On the other hand, search engines must compare the above justifications for removal with the public interest. If the Hello! Kitty-loving man listed above was a politician, for example, and was insisting that we all adopt cats (I know that this example has broken down, bear with me), his Hello! Kitty infatuation might be important to the voting public.
It’s a really confusing, awkward situation, and Google will have to internally compare every case with these points.
Searching for Google’s subjectivity
These cases remind us that search engines, as much as they market themselves as objective purveyors of links, are entirely subjective, based upon human-created algorithms, laws, and a mess of other interests. And since that’s the case, maybe it is fair to ask Google to add in some more human factors?
is it too personal to leave to computers?
One thing it does show is that the internet is increasing becoming the archive of the world, even for every day, personal human interactions. If the most notable thing you’ve achieved – publicly – in life is a divorce, for example, should that be your web-based legacy? Perhaps, for now, it is too personal to leave to computers.
Of course, if there are too many requests for content removal for Google to deal with, computers are exactly what will be used to solve the problem. A new algorithm here, some variable tweaks there, and all embarrassing news stories that are over five years old, aren’t deemed in the public interest (leaving murders, assault charges, sexual offences, fraud) and aren’t related to public figures will disappear from the web.
That may make individual lives better, but will it leave a less rich history of humanity for future generations to pore over?
On the plus side, this could be a way to finally remove the embarrassing Google Image pictures that appear when I (frequently) search my name.
