The highest European court limits the confidentiality rule of the "right to be forgotten"

LONDON – The highest court in Europe on Tuesday limited the scope of the historic privacy law online, known as the "right to be forgotten", limiting people's ability to control the information available to them. subject on the Internet.

In a decision with broad implications for the regulation of the internet, the Court of Justice of the European Communities stated that the rule of confidentiality could not be applied outside the European Union. French authorities had sought to force Google and other search engines to remove links to users around the world.

The decision defines in more detail the scope of the right to be forgotten, a key element of EU privacy legislation on the Internet. The standard, established in 2014, can be used to force Google and other search engines to remove links to websites, news articles, and databases containing personal information that is considered old, obsolete, or unclear. public interest.

The decision will probably avoid international conflicts over the scope of European laws outside the bloc of 28 countries. The court said that Europe could not impose the right to forget to countries that did not recognize the law.

The case is final and the national courts of the European Union must comply with the decision.

"The balance between the right to privacy and the protection of personal data, on the one hand, and the freedom of information of Internet users, on the other hand, is likely to vary greatly in the world, "said the court in its decision.

The court said that the right to be forgotten "is not an absolute right".

Google praised the decision. "Since 2014, we have worked hard to implement the right to be forgotten in Europe and to strike a reasonable balance between the rights of people to access information and privacy. " Peter Fleischer, Google's chief legal advisor for privacy, said in a statement. "It's good to see that the court accepted our arguments."