The “right to be forgotten” intellectual confusion has spread from the EU to the United States. John Zorabedian reports in: Do Americans have the same right as Europeans to be “forgotten” by Google? that Consumer Watchdog has filed a complaint with the FTC, seeking the mis-named “right to be forgotten” for Americans.
The “right to be forgotten” is deeply problematic for many reasons, among which are:
- If enforced, the offending link is removed from Google’s search results. The original and presumably offending source material persists. At best, the right is: “a right to not be found in Google search results.”
- As “a right to not be found in Google search results,” it is a remarkably limited right, since it works only in jurisdictions that establish that right.
- As “a right to not be found in Google search results,” it could lead to varying results as rules to be “forgotten” vary from one jurisdiction to another.
- As “a right to not be found in Google search results,” if it is given extra-territorial reach, would lead to world-wide censorship of Google search results. (The EU may be concerned with the sensitivities of Balkan war criminals but many outside the EU are not.)
- As “a right to not be found in Google search results,” is on its face limited to Google, opening up the marketplace for sites that remember forgotten results and plugins that supplement Google search results with forgotten results.
- As “a right to not be found in Google search results,” imposes an administrative overhead on Google that is not imposed on other search engines. Not to mention additional judicial proceedings if denial of a request by Google leads to litigation to force removal of materials from a Google search result.
At this point, the “complaint” of Consumer Watchdog isn’t anything more than a letter to the FTC. It appears no where in official FTC listings. Hopefully it will stay that way.