Internet users in Europe have something Internet users in the United States don't have: a right to be forgotten online. Thanks to a 2014 court case, Europeans can ask Google and other search giants to remove results that are outdated, inaccurate or irrelevant — giving Internet users more control over their online reputations.
Now, a consumer group is asking the Federal Trade Commission to make Google bring that privacy protection to Americans. In a formal complaint to be sent to the agency on Tuesday, Consumer Watchdog argues that withholding that ability from U.S. Internet users is unfair and deceptive — two types of business practices that the FTC is charged with protecting consumers against. The letter urges the FTC to "investigate and act" on the situation.
The right to be forgotten, or the right of relevancy, has gained new urgency in the digital age, the group argues in the letter to the FTC. "Before the Internet if someone did something foolish when they were young — and most of us probably did — there might well be a public record of what happened," the letter says. But those indiscretions required digging to bring up years or decades down the line — and now they're "instantly available with a few clicks on a computer or taps on a mobile device."
The right to be forgotten gives back a level of the privacy by obscurity that people enjoyed before the Internet age, Consumer Watchdog argues. But Google has been unwilling to extend the practice beyond where it's explicitly required — a state of affairs that John Simpson, the director of the organization's Privacy Project, believes puts it on the wrong side of the FTC's mandate to protect consumers. "Google holds itself out as so concerned about users' privacy, but denies this fundamental privacy protection — that's deceptive," Simpson said in an interview.
The European right to be forgotten has been controversial, with some critics arguing that it could conflict with freedom of expression or of the press.
But extending the right to be forgotten to the United States doesn't mean that Google would approve all take-down requests, Simpson said. Nor would it amount to censorship, he argued, because the information would still be available online if Google removed search results — it would just become harder to find.
A Google representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the complaint. But the company's transparency report says it has removed around 41 percent of URLs evaluated under the European right to be forgotten.
The Washington Post
Tue Jul 07 2015
The European right to be forgotten has been controversial, with some critics arguing that it could conflict with freedom of expression or of the press.
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