Right To Be Forgotten Or Rewriting History.

[Gromit]

A case currently in the Courts.
A businessman wants google to erase two search engine results that lead to national newspaper reports of his previous criminal convictions.

He caims he has served s time and so his past should be forgotten and not there for anyone to discover.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/27/right-to-be-forgotten-claimant-wants-to-rewrite-history-says-google

I am in two minds about this. What do you lot think ?

[kvalidir]

Far simpler to just change your name and generally more appropriate, not keen on this, Max Mosely is trying to do the same thing with the Nazi Sex Dungeon debarcle he was involved in.

[New Judge]

I am not torn at all.

His previous misdemeanours are fact. Because they are now exempt from revelation under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) does not mean they were not committed. When I was young I was told that if I committed any criminal acts, my record would follow me for the rest of my life. So it should be. I actually think the ROA is misguided legislation. It provides protection for criminals whilst providing risk for everybody else. I am all for seeing offenders having the opportunity for rehabilitation but the risks they pose should be weighed by those who may be effected by them, not by some blanket and somewhat unsophisticated legislation.

[Garaman]

The internet heralded a seismic shift in information available to us; most of it we are pleased about, the rest we just have to accept.

[Gromit]

When I do business with a new client I do checks on the company and individuals. If the results had been scrubbed, I could get duped. So tending to agree with NJ.

[woofgang]

I am in two minds......I know lots of people do family ancestry stuff but I know that in my family there are things that the people concerned who are now dead wanted to be kept private and I have respected that and have not investigated to see what they might be. I don't think that the "record will follow you" thing is a deterrent or reasonable. Regarding newspapers, not sure.

[dunnitall]

Totally agree with New Judge. It's there, it's happened and unfortunately you have to accept what you did is documented and nothing will undo the wrong you did. That's IMO ...others may think differently.

[Spicerack]

Mr Polly wouldn't have a happy ending today.

[ToraToraTora]

nope he did the crime, should not be able to hide it. From the link; "In 2014 the European Union’s court of justice ruled that “irrelevant” and outdated data should be erased on request. " - both those parameters are subjective. I would argue his past criminal activity is relevant to many that may search.

[jno]

This can probably be left to the public to make up their own minds. I'd hesitate to deal with someone guilty of false accounting less than 20 years ago, whereas I wouldn't be worried about 50-year-old drug offences. So generally I'm in favour of a right to know.

There may be a case for continuing privacy over offences that aren't offences any more - homosexuality and so on.

[nailit]

I asked a similar question regarding my own name coming up on Google searches some time ago. The searches linked to my local newspaper recording court proceedings against me. However they seem to have (for the most part) disappeared. Typing my name into Google now only brings up my last court proceeding from last year. Anyone know why this is?
As for your past been a permanent fixture on Google searches, surely people should be allowed to move on in life? People are human, and as humans we make mistakes, we do wrong things, we have different life experiences that can take us down paths that we wouldn't choose in different circumstances. People can..and do..change.

[jno]

Nailit, the paper may have deleted its own archives - a good many mentions of my own name have vanished from the internet that way.

[Tilly2]

Are you infamous, Jno?

[nailit]

Thank you jno, I did wonder if that might be the case.
However, an ex cell mate of mine went on to commit (some years later) a rape of a young woman. At the time it was all over the internet and now it cant be found anywhere. Often wondered if he had successfully got it erased from Google in some way.

[jno]

No longer, Tilly.

[jno]

It's possible, nailit. Newspapers may thin out their archives in response to legislation like this, or just to save money. Quite likely the physical papers are still available somewhere, only not online.

[ToraToraTora]

jno: "I'd hesitate to deal with someone guilty of false accounting less than 20 years ago" - that's interesting because the EU has been guilty of false accounting continuously for that time and you are still happy to get into bed with them!

[nailit]

If I type my name into Google, it brings up my last court case from last year. It says that I was charged with been drunk and disorderly and 2 accounts of assaulting police officers and that my case was adjourned. Reading this you would make judgments on me based on what the article said. (naturally). BUT its what the article, or Google search, DIDNT say that would make a difference as to how that was interpreted. It didn't say that I wasn't in court for the hearing as I was in a psychiatric hospital at the time. It didn't say that at the time of the offences that I was intending to throw myself off a bridge and the reason for assaulting the police officers was to get away from them with the intention of getting back over the railings of the bridge, from which they had pulled me back.
News.. any news ..is always skewed from my own personal experience. And Google reflects that in its searches.
More the fool anyone who believes everything that he reads.

[ludwig]

I agree with the judge. He may have served his time, but that doesn't mean he can hide the fact that he's served time.

[Old_Geezer]

If it's true and not malicious lies then I don't see anyone has any right to hide the truth. (There may be exception arguments for victims being humiliated.)

[youngmafbog]

Are not Newspaper archives available still to all (written ones that is)?

Surely the information has always been available it is just the Internet just makes the search simpler?