Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is trying to shift the ‘right to be forgotten’ debate to the streets. Earlier this year, an EU Court of Justice judgment asked the company to remove certain search results which divulge personal information, when requested by an individual. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is going to conduct a series of public hearings on this issue, the first of which will be conducted in Madrid on September 9. Critics believe that it’s more than a mix of a PR stunt and a ‘lobbying exercise’ by Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Bloomberg divulged the details of these public hearings and what critics have to say about it, in one of its articles recently.
According to the article, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s advisors on this issue include Wikipedia Founder, Jimmy Wales, an ex-justice minister of Germany and a former privacy regulator from Spain. A team of advisers from Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is also drafting a report on the ruling, which will discuss the implications of the court case for Internet users and news publishers and will also provide recommendations to the company on how it should deal with the requests to delete criminal convictions of individual. The team of advisors for this includes among others Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, and David Drummond.
Critics believe that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is trying to mislead the public by trying to show the ruling as a type of censorship because censorship amounts to removing of content due to political or religious reasons, whereas here it is due to personal privacy reasons. Spain’s data protection agency was also invited to the event to be held in Madrid, but according to the article it declined saying that it does not participates in events like these promoted by companies whose activity it regulates.
As of June 30, 2014, Boykin Curry‘s Eagle Capital Management owns over 792,000 shares in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
Disclosure: None
Suggested Articles:
Laziest Countries In the World
