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14May14

EU Internet privacy policy should be used in Russia -- expert

The Safe Internet League, Russia's largest and most reputable organization fighting dangerous web content, has applauded a landmark decision by the European Union Court of Justice that in some cases Google may have to delete search results upon individual requests.

"We hope that European approaches to Google will find their place in the Russian legal system," Safe Internet League chief executive Denis Davydov said on Wednesday.

The test-case privacy ruling against Google Spain was brought by a Spanish man, Mario Costeja Gonzalez, after he failed to secure deletion of an auction notice of his repossessed home dating from 1998 on the website of a mass circulation newspaper in Catalonia.

Gonzalez argued that the matter, in which his house had been auctioned to recover his social security debts, had been resolved and should no longer be linked to him whenever his name was searched on Google.

The case is the first of more than 200 cases in the pipeline against Google in which Spanish citizens want the search engine to delete personal information about them from their search results.

"This is a flagrant violation of human rights to privacy," Davydov said. "The European Union's court was right to make Google change its policy and start respecting this right."

Last September, the Safe Internet League published the results of a full-scale investigation by the League into Google's activities in Russia. The organization accused Google of "ignoring Russian legal requirements" and "deliberately trying to influence Russian domestic policy in order to promote its services among Russian citizens and officials, in order to undermine digital sovereignty".

[Source: Itar Tass, Moscow, 14May14]
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Privacy and counterintelligence
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