Week 9 - Quiz

Question 1

Who is the author of this law & technology paper?

Answer 1

Bygrave, 2015

Question 2

What law was introduced by the EU court of Justice in 2015?

Answer 2

The qualified right not to appear in a public index of search results

Question 3

What is an incorrect belief about the policy & what should it really be?

Answer 3

• The incorrect belief is that it establishes a right to be forgotten
• The correct description is that it upholds a qualified right to be de-indexed, or, more specifically, a qualified right not to figure in a public index of search results.

Question 4

What is an issue with the right?

Answer 4

The policy makes personal information more difficult to find and therefore serves, indirectly, an interest in being forgotten.

Question 5

What the general debate balanced between?

Answer 5

Privacy interests & free speech interests.

Question 6

What is debated about this topic?

Answer 6

1. Whether a person’s past life should be available online, even if it isn’t available offline & is not relevant today.
2. To what extent online mechanisms for data search and retrieval should emulate the standards of the (past) offline world.

Question 7

Why is it difficult to implement?

Answer 7

The relative indelibility of online data.

**marks that can’t be removed

Question 8

What was Google’s defence as to why the policy shouldn’t be introduced?

Answer 8

Google argued it was merely a medium for locating and presenting data. so it should escape legal liability for privacy-related harms arising from the information its search engine helps to disseminate.

Question 9

Why was the law introduced?

Answer 9

Gonzales, a Spanish lawyer, argued that details published by a newspaper about insolvency issues he faced in the 90s should be removed.

But the newspaper & government argued that it should stay online.

Question 10

Discuss the “controller” debate.

Answer 10

Google argued it couldn’t be a controller since it is merely acting in a robotic capacity & exercises negligible control over the content of the search results.

The court disagreed and said that Google should be regarded as a “controller” of the personal data inhering in the links indexed by its search engine

Question 11

What duties did the policy force Google to undertake?

Answer 11

Effectuate (force) justified requests to supress search results in which certain types of personal data inhere.

Question 12

What did the EU data privacy law prioritise?

Answer 12

Privacy rights and freedom of speech interests over Google’s economic interests.

Question 13

Why did the court receive criticism?

Answer 13

The court only mentioned that the Internet makes search results available everywhere

There were many areas it didn’t cover such as:

• the implications of it being a global communication network.
• consider markets such as the US
• explain how to fairly evaluate de-indexation requests (only gives vague assessment criteria)
• consider whether it is appropriate for a search engine to engage in a delicate balancing act

Therefore, these omissions have rightly amplified irritation with the decision.

Question 14

Does Google have experience dealing with similar requests to remove information?

Answer 14

Yes Google has experience in handling massive amounts of deindexation requests related to alleged infringement of intellectual property rights.

• The requests are qualitatively different from privacy requests, but the logistics are similar.
• EU data protection authorities have offered help ie. in drawing up guidelines to ensure consistency in assessing de-indexation requests

Question 15

What makes this policy different to previous policies?

Answer 15

• First time it has directed at the internet

- First time challenging the basic element of the eminently successful “Internet economy.”

Question 16

What other policies has the EU rejected?

Answer 16

Proposals in Belgium to employ deep packet inspection aimed at preventing copyright infringement through peer-to-peer file sharing

Question 17

Discuss the context of the EUs decision to introduce the policy.

Answer 17

The EU had..

1. Introduced similar policies before IT deployment, but the was the first time focusing on the Internet mechanism & a basic element of the “Internet economy.”
2. Data is a right itself & should be considered in like the with Human rights.
3. History of being skeptical of automated decisions that affect personal interests (ie., 1995 EU Data Protection Directive that gives people the right to object to automated decision-making processes that are based on their character.)

All of these factors made it difficult for Google to legitimize its search engine operations as value-neutral, robotic applications of algorithms.

Question 18

What is the difference between EU and US data privacy policies?

Answer 18

The difference is huge.

US approach is less restrictive, tensions are high with the EU especially with the introduction of GDPR.

US has warned of a new trade war if legislations are introduced.

Question 19

What was the final point of the paper?

Answer 19

Although the law has been introduced in the EU, we are unlikely to see significant reduction in the EUs de-indexation.

Question 20

What was a key question in the litigation highlighted by the author?

Answer 20

Whether or not Google was considered a controller under data protection law.

Question 21

What did the court state about the implications of its decision according to the author?

Answer 21

Nothing

Question 22

What type of right is the protection of personal data, under EU law, according to the author?

Answer 22

A fundamental right.

Question 23

What does European data privacy law require Google to do, according to the authors?

Answer 23

Remove search results revealing some categories of personal data related to an individual.