Privacy Part 2: The Right to Be Forgotten

February 24

The Court of Justice of the European Union made big waves last May when it ruled against Google on a claim brought by a Spanish citizen asserting a right to remove two news articles that appeared in Google search results when he searched for his own name. The case, now known as the case that recognized the “right to be forgotten,” has come to the forefront of discussions of online privacy. In today’s class, we’ll explore the “right to be forgotten,” how it applies in Europe, whether it could ever come to the United States, and how international companies address competing national balances over privacy and free speech.

We’ll also spend part of this day describing the final project for the class, and discuss how to pick a good community and issue to study for the project.

Our guest this week is Berkman staffer Adam Holland, who oversees the operations of several projects, including Chilling Effects, which tracks legal threats against online speech.

Readings

• Jeffery Rosen, "The Right to Be Forgotten," 64 Stanford Law Review Online 88 (February 13, 2012)

• Eric Posner, "We All Have the Right to Be Forgotten," Slate, May 14, 2014

• Jonathan Zittrain, "Don't Force Google to 'Forget'," New York Times, May 14, 2014

• Gail Sullivan, "'Right to be Forgotten' gets real as Google wipes stories from search results," July 3, 2014

• Jeffery Toobin, "The Solace of Oblivion," The New Yorker, September 29, 2014

Optional Readings

• Google Spain SL v. Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (an abridged version of the ECJ decision from May 2014 - built on the Berkman Center's own H2O Platform for online textbooks)

• Aleksandra Kuczerawy and Jef Ausloos, European Union and Google Spain (from the brand new report from the Global Network of Internet and Society centers)

Class Discussion

Please remember to sign your postings by adding four tildes (~~~~) to the end of your contribution. This will automatically add your username and the date/time of your post, like so: Andy 15:12, 7 November 2013 (EST)

Andy, could you please look over the microphones in the classroom? I had a really hard time hearing what was said in class last week. There was no problem with hearing the people closest to the camera, but those further away (including Mr. Faris) were really difficult to hear. :) JosefinS (talk) 06:38, 19 February 2015 (EST)

---

Thanks for the heads up, Josefin. I think we were having some problems with Rob's mic, and I'll tell folks in class to speak up to make sure the table mics pick up the sound. Andy (talk) 08:09, 19 February 2015 (EST)