The UK Government is not in favour of having ‘Right to be Forgotten’ present in the data-protection laws being drafted by the EU and wants it removed; however, there are those within the country who believe that this particular option would allow individuals to have far more control over their online information.
Speaking at the House of Lords committee meeting on the Right to be Forgotten on Wednesday, Justice minister Simon Hughes said that the government doesn’t want it to remain because of the problems it has created within days of it going into effect in the EU.
Hughes said that both as an individual and a minister, he doesn’t want law to develop such that it access to information, which is available everywhere else, is closed down in the EU.
“The government is currently negotiating with our 27 partners to get a new law, which is the new directive and we, the UK, would not want what is currently in the draft, which is the Right to be Forgotten, to remain. We want it to be removed, we think it is the wrong position,” he said.
These comments didn’t bode well with Stewart Room, president of the UK’s National Association of Data Protection Officers (NADPO) has criticised the government for its stance and believes that the ruling is about protecting one’s privacy and such a ruling doesn’t threaten freedom of information.
“Data protection law is about informational privacy and the idea which is at the heart here is that we shall be in control of our own information. The ECJ judgement is pretty good in my view; I think the ECJ got it right”, Room told SCMagazineUK.com.
Hughes said that the ruling is not in public interest and that he hopes that the government can “discourage a lot of people.”
Hughes anticipates that the take down requests to internet companies may eventually find their way into Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and could be appealed up to tribunals.
The Justice Minister believes that such a law could end up being an unmanageable and phenomenal task and that “It’s not technically possible to remove all traces of data loaded on to the internet from other sources.”
According to an estimate enforcement of right to be forgotten law could cost British businesses somewhere around £360m a year.
