‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Goes Global

The Article 29 Working Party ("Working Party") – the collection of EU Member States' national data protection authorities ("DPAs") – has issued its much awaited guidance on how DPAs should implement the Court of Justice of the European Union's ("CJEU") Google Spain judgment.

The CJEU's judgment recognised a right of individuals to be 'forgotten' on search engines. EU citizens and residents were empowered, in certain circumstances, to request that links returned against their names by search engines be de-listed.

While the judgment has proven to be ground-breaking, search engines and citizens had been grappling to understand the exact extent of the right to be forgotten. The publication of the Working Party's guidelines aims to set down the parameters of this newly enunciated right.