Google Fights French Requests to Delist Globally

One country’s rules on web search delisting shouldn't affect the listings of the entire world, said Google Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer in a blog post Friday. Google honors European individuals’ requests to delist URLs about themselves under EU “right-to-be-forgotten” rules, but hides the link only when the searcher is from the same country as the delister, Fleischer said. Google opposes an order by the French Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés to delist French users from everyone’s search results globally, he said. “We agree with the CNIL that privacy is a fundamental right -- but so too is the right to free expression,” Fleischer wrote. “Any balance that is struck between those two rights must be accompanied by territorial limits, consistent with the basic principles of international law. Aside from anything else, it’s plain common sense that one country should not have the right to impose its rules on the citizens of another, especially not when it comes to lawful content.”