Google, Europe and Privacy

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/opinion/google-europe-and-privacy.html

Version 0 of 1.

To the Editor:

Re “The E.U.’s Dangerous Data Rules,” by Daphne Keller and Bruce D. Brown (Op-Ed, April 25):

The solution proposed by Google to the European privacy decision about delisting is bad for privacy, bad for freedom of expression and entirely upside down.

Rather than remove the link to private information, as required by law, Google has chosen instead to create a system of “geo fencing” that prevents only those in France from obtaining access to the personal details published by Google that should be delisted.

This result make no sense. If a person in the United States went to Google and said there was a link to a site with private bank account details, Google would waste no time in removing the link.

And it would certainly not tell the user that it plans to remove the link only in the .us domain or restrict access only to those in the United States. But that is essentially what Google is trying to do when faced with a similar privacy concern in Europe.

Moreover, Google’s decision to block access to information based on a regional basis is censorship pure and simple. The French agency has been very clear on this point. There is no desire in Europe to limit access to information in this way.

Google has turned a decision that protected privacy and freedom of expression into a justification for restricting access to information. If this approach takes hold, Google will carry the responsibility for promoting “splinter nets.”

MARC ROTENBERG

Washington

The writer, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, is a co-author of the book “Privacy Law and Society.”