EU to enshrine “right to be forgotten”

March 17th, 2011

The EU has announced its intention to ensure that social networking sites such as Facebook routinely offer high standards of privacy. They will recognise the existence of a “right to be forgotten online”. EU justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, has said that she wants to “explicitly clarify that people shall have the right – and not only the possibility — to withdraw their consent to data processing.”

Spain sues Google over Street View

October 19th, 2010

The Spanish Agency for Data Protection (AEPD) has filed a lawsuit against Google. Following an investigation launched in May, the Street View service has been charged with violating the country’s data protection laws. In August, a judge decided to investigate a similar complaint made by another association (APEDANICA). AEPD says that, if found guilty, Google could be hit with fines of between 84,000 and 840,000 dollars for each offence. Street View has proved controversial in a number of countries, including Germany, Switzerland and the UK.