Pois hakutuloksista, pois mielestä?
Avainsanat:
viestintäoikeus, tietosuoja, henkilötiedot, Euroopan unionin tuomioistuin, internet, mediaAbstrakti
Out of search results, out of mind?
Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger analyses the dialectics of remembering and forgetting in his work Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age (2009). He also notes that more recently the default has changed from forgetting to remembering due to technological development and digital devices. This may have serious effects on the socio-cultural level. Therefore, forgetting has to be reintroduced to the digital realm. Mayer-Schönberger’s ideas serve as a theoretical framework for recent developments at EU level regarding data protection reform and the case-law of the Court of Justice: According to the CJEU ruling in Google Spain and others (C-131/12), the operator of a search engine can be obliged to remove links from the list of results to web pages published by third parties. In principle, the data subject’s fundamental rights to privacy and data protection weigh more than the economic interest of the search engine and the access of the public to information. However, in some cases the interest of the public may prevail, for instance, due to the role of the data subject in public life. This article aims to provide an analysis of the ruling with a focus on various dimensions related to communication and the (mass) media. Furthermore, the article aims to provide insight into the “legalization” of forgetting in the online environment which relies on digital memory. Since the default in the digital realm has become remembering, forgetting definitely has to be supported by law. However, forgetting is now being legalised in a manner, which not only creates more duties but also powers to private players in the field of communication.
