I’m not sure that’s a good thing. I’d rather folks remember me. On the internet, of course.

Aren’t we all scrambling to build an online identity? Even when that online identity reveals every damnable detail about your downloads and search history? On your laptop, the apps on your phone…

Ah, maybe not. Exactly.

But I’d really not want to be completely forgotten... The LinkedIn profile is handy. You won’t be forgotten entirely, just parts of you that are “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant”.

And who’s saying this? The European Court of Justice, EU’s highest court, recently ruled that Google is obliged to delete irrelevant data from its search results about an individual on their request. The lawsuit was filed against Google Spain by Spanish national Mario Costeja González.

What did he want deleted? González took Google to court after the Internet giant refused to delete an auction notice of his repossessed home, dating from 1998, on newspaper La Vanguardias ’s website.

Not really a harmful detail. Clearly, the repossession doesn’t bode well for his credit history. González argued that the matter is now irrelevant as he cleared his social security debts by auctioning the house. He doesn’t want the issue linked to him any longer and he’d rather everybody, and Google, forget about it.

Isn’t that a little dishonest, though? Erasing past facts? This is where the ruling gets complicated. The newspaper’s Web archives will continue to show the ad but a google search won’t lead you to the page. In essence, the allusion to his bankruptcy still exists on the Internet. It’s just going to be a lot more difficult to locate.

So there’s no threat of this turning into Internet censorship? Not likely. Judges said their ruling does not imply that all information can be simply deleted on request and that ‘the right to be forgotten’ needs to be balanced with the public’s ‘right to know’. Besides, news media are exempted from deletion requests.

Can this also apply to old Facebook photos? And... umm... my comments on YouTube? It does, if you live in the European Union. The EU already has privacy laws that allow for tailoring public identitiesIn the past, the EU has forced Internet companies to ask for user consent before installing browser cookies, has placed limits on how much data can be shared and prevented defamatory autocompletes next to individuals’ names on search engines. None of this applies to India. Our Right to Privacy Bill is still in its draft stages.

So my YouTube remarks stay? There are other ways, less effective admittedly, to control information about you. Turn up privacy settings on your social media to the highest degree, delete/un-‘tag’ your photos, take down blogposts. To find all search results about you, Google your full name, within quotes. If there are comments you’d like removed, write to the Website’s administrator.

What does mighty Google have to say about the ruling? It’s official reply used the words “surprised” and “disappointed”. And it’s probably already busy checking for loopholes, since the ruling leaves much room for interpretation. But a bigger worry is how search engine companies will now become data arbitrators, deciding which parts of your online identity are “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant”.

Published on May 14, 2014