A German data subject was the victim of an embarrassing prank 20 years ago. A newspaper website published an article about the prank at the time, and the article is still available on the newspaper's website. Unfortunately, the prank is the top search result when a user searches on the victim's name. The data subject requests that SearchCo delist this result. SearchCo agrees, and instructs its technology team to avoid scanning or indexing the article.
What else must SearchCo do?
- Notify the newspaper that its article it is delisting the article.
- Fully erase the URL to the content, as opposed to delist which is mainly based on data subject's name.
- Identify other controllers who are processing the same information and inform them of the delisting request.
- Prevent the article from being listed in search results no matter what search terms are entered into the search engine.
Answer(s): A
Explanation:
According to the European Data Protection Law & Practice textbook, page 326, "the CJEU held that the search engine operator is obliged to remove from the list of results displayed following a search made on the basis of a person's name links to web pages, published by third parties and containing information relating to that person, also in a case where that name or information is not erased beforehand or simultaneously from those web pages, and even, as the case may be, when its publication in itself on those pages is lawful." However, the CJEU also stated that "the operator of the search engine as the person responsible for that processing must, at the latest on the occasion of the erasure from its list of results, disclose to the operator of the web page containing that information the fact that that web page will no longer appear in the search engine's results following a search made on the basis of the data subject's name." Therefore, SearchCo must notify the newspaper that it is delisting the article, as part of its obligation to respect the data subject's right to be forgotten.
Reference:
European Data Protection Law & Practice, page 326
CJEU Judgment in Case C-131/12 Google Spain SL, Google Inc. v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, Mario Costeja González, paragraphs 88 and 93
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