According to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Google should not have to delete controversial search results worldwide. It would be enough if the affected links in the EU were blocked, said ECJ Advocate General Maciej Szpunar in a recent Opinion.
Search queries outside the territory of the EU should not be affected by the removal of links from the search results. Google has been obliged in the EU for five years to delete search results on its website at the request of those concerned. In Europe, nine out of ten search queries run through the servers of the Silicon Valley giant. Google has been eradicating a good 2.9 million links to websites since 2014.
The Advocate General also ruled that links to websites with sensitive data must be consistently deleted if those concerned apply. In exceptional cases, the publication of sensitive data, which includes, for example, information on religious beliefs and sex life, but allowed for journalistic or artistic purposes. The highest European court often follows the Advocate General’s opinion.
