How Google Is Fighting to Limit the Scope of Europe's Privacy Law

On Tuesday, Google will try to convince Europe’s top court that the EU should not be pushing its own privacy laws on the rest of the world. The case marks the culmination of a long-running battle within Europe—but depending how the court rules, the implications could be global.

Jim Kaskade, CEO at Janrain said: "When handling user information, organizations must adopt a stringent approach towards user information, especially in keeping in line with GDPR and other regulations globally. This means that if someone asks to “be forgotten” on the organisations digital properties, the organisation must assume that the person means being removed everywhere. It’s a simple way to approach things.

"So, what does this have to do with Google and the CJEU? It means that if someone asks to be forgotten in France on a French website, you should assume that it means that the French citizen is asking for that company to forget them everywhere - that includes websites in France, Germany, the UK and, yes, all around the globe.

"However, it comes down to the user’s choice whether they only want to be removed from one website vs. ALL. Privacy is about choice and about how you want your data to be used.

"So, can Google provide users choice and have the ability to further chose, selectively, where they want to be forgotten? Sure. “You are about to be removed from all references around the globe. If you want to further filter your choice to be forgotten, go here.”

"One other thing - the fact that Google is referencing digital properties globally and essentially providing a reference to the original content begs the question, “Are we focusing on the wrong company? Shouldn’t we be enforcing at the source?”

"What if I and my family want to search with Google for real police records (court records of felonies, and other offenses) that provide our family information we need to protect our children? I know that in this situation those properties have the legal right to maintain public information on bad actors, but does Google know the difference if someone having trouble with the law says, “forget me” and remove all references to my name even if Google is indexing a source that has a legal right to present that personal information? I suppose that is a broader question than the one being discussed.

"From our perspective, we operate with a stringent point of view and will always error on the side of protecting the rights of the end-consumer. We enable the broadest use-cases to protect the individual’s personal information rights."