Today the European Union's highest court ruled that Google must allow its search engine users to delete links leading to information about themselves in certain cases.
The ruling will mainly affect Europeans and require Google to actively field complaints about the content showing up on its searches, according to The New York Times. Websites that publish information won't necessarily have to delete their web pages.
The ruling stems from a 2009 Spanish case involving a lawyer, Mario Costeja, who Googled his name, only to find old legal notices and newspaper articles detailing his debts and forced sale of his property. Costeja argued that the information was no longer relevant and should be removed.
This ruling effectively deemed Google a “controller” of information, and therefore, the company must follow European privacy laws when operating there. Google must remove the contentious links.
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