Sinking Ship
Today, Google writes to me to ask:
From: Google
To: Me
A recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union found that European law gives people the right to ask search engines like Google to remove results for queries that include their name.
Since then, we've received removal requests on all sorts of content: serious criminal records, embarrassing photos, instances of online bullying and name-calling, decades-old allegations, negative press stories, and more.
For each of these requests, we're required to weigh, on a case-by-case basis, an individual's right to be forgotten with the public's right to know.
We're seeking advice on the principles Google ought to apply when making decisions on individual cases – what do you think?
To: Me
A recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union found that European law gives people the right to ask search engines like Google to remove results for queries that include their name.
Since then, we've received removal requests on all sorts of content: serious criminal records, embarrassing photos, instances of online bullying and name-calling, decades-old allegations, negative press stories, and more.
For each of these requests, we're required to weigh, on a case-by-case basis, an individual's right to be forgotten with the public's right to know.
We're seeking advice on the principles Google ought to apply when making decisions on individual cases – what do you think?
To which I responded:
From: Me
To: Google
My concern is that meddlesome and burdensome EU regulation becomes an albatross around Google's neck, as they order you to police things no one could have the resources to police. And if you think realism will control their decisions here: remember the cookie directive. This is the body who thought - on the one continent in the world that is not experiencing economic growth - it would be a good idea to make each of 500 million people spend five minutes a day reading about and clicking to consent on cookies, on every single web site they visit, forever. Absurd and completely true. Europe is doomed. Don't let the Internet (or Google) go down with it.
Cheers.
P.S. The core collision point is that the EU is a top-down command-and-control system, and the net doesn't work like that. You already know this, but the EU doesn't. They're not huge on reality, or freedom – never mind personal responsibility (e.g. for how you appear online).
P.P.S. Get Britain Out!
To: Google
My concern is that meddlesome and burdensome EU regulation becomes an albatross around Google's neck, as they order you to police things no one could have the resources to police. And if you think realism will control their decisions here: remember the cookie directive. This is the body who thought - on the one continent in the world that is not experiencing economic growth - it would be a good idea to make each of 500 million people spend five minutes a day reading about and clicking to consent on cookies, on every single web site they visit, forever. Absurd and completely true. Europe is doomed. Don't let the Internet (or Google) go down with it.
Cheers.
P.S. The core collision point is that the EU is a top-down command-and-control system, and the net doesn't work like that. You already know this, but the EU doesn't. They're not huge on reality, or freedom – never mind personal responsibility (e.g. for how you appear online).
P.P.S. Get Britain Out!
