The European Court of Justice this week ruled in favour of the ‘right to be forgotten’ online. In a case against Google Spain, the court found that the search engine must grant access to and delete “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive” data when users request so. Hannes Swoboda, president of the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament, commented on the ruling: “This court decision clearly demonstrates the spirit of European data handling: power to the user, not the company.
“Data is one of the biggest new challenges of the 21st century. How we cope with the new masses of data will be one of the main challenges for the next European Parliament.
“We support the simple principle that users own their data, as confirmed by the European Court of Justice today. This is what Socialists and Democrats fought for to be at the core of the European Parliament proposal for comprehensive data protection.
“Today’s decision is a big step forward on the path to comprehensive European data protection. The European Parliament has a clear position, the European Court of Justice has spoken clear words, now the Council needs to engage in negotiations.”