On 26 November 2014 the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party published guidelines on the implementation of the right to be forgotten decision from the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Working Party document 225 provides guidance on the definition of search engines as data controllers under EU law and the rights of individuals to request search engines to de-list web pages where the right of data protection of an individual is felt to be infringed.
The guidelines also clarify that the right to be forgotten is not exhaustive and that a balance has to be made between the rights of the data subject as well as the interest of the public in having access to particular information that the individual wishes "to be forgotten".
The guidelines state that "the interest of the public will be significantly greater if the data subject plays a role in public life".
The guidelines analyse the common criteria for handling of complaints by European data protection authorities and are a vitally important document for anyone involved in handling requests for erasure or requests to be forgotten.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
