After WP29 issued the guidelines to help authorities to deal with appeals resulting from search engines’ refusal to “de-list” (see here), the Italian Data Protection Authority is facing the challenges of implementing the Costeja case, C-131/12 and its “right to be forgotten”.
The Italian Data Protection Authority received around 10 appeals against search engines refusal to de-list results from web pages. In the majority of instances, the Authority rejected the appeals and affirmed the search engine refusal to de-list.
In almost all instances the Italian Data Protection Authority highlighted how petitioners had the right to modify, rectify or integrate published data but not the right to be forgotten considering the public interest in having access to the information (doc. web nn. 3623819, 3623851, 3623919, 3624021). In three instances the Authority deemed that the information whose deletion was requested related to trials not yet concluded (doc. web n. 3623954) or that recently ended (in 2013, see doc. web nn. 3623897, 3624003), which were still of public interest.
In two instances the Italian Data Protection Authority accepted the appellant claims considering the nature of the information. In one case, the Authority held that the listed news contained several references to people extraneous to the facts and that its content was therefore excessive compared to processing purposes (doc. web n. 3623877). In the other, the Authority ordered the de-listing of the url – relating to a crime for which the subject was acquitted – because it would allow the subject’s identification (doc. web n. 3623978).
More information are available (in Italian) at http://www.eurojus.it…
Originally published on Technethics on January 2016