Digital Rights Ireland Ltd. v. Minister for Communications & Google Spain SL v. Agencia Española De Protección De Datos (C.J.E.U.)

Extract

In April and May of 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), sitting as a Grand Chamber, issued two preliminary rulings with dramatic implications for internet privacy—a topic of increasing global concern following Edward Snowden’s leaks on the data surveillance programs run by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and its allies. The first case, Digital Rights Ireland Ltd. v. Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and others joined with Kärtner Landesregierung and others, found an unacceptable interference in the rights to privacy and data protection in a European Union directive that required private telecom and internet companies to retain records of user activity and to make those records available for use by law enforcement. The second case, Google Spain SL, Google Inc. v. Agencia Española de Protección de Datos and Mario Costeja González, recognized that there are situations where an internet search engine, such as Google, could be ordered to erase links from search results to protect individual privacy. While these two cases have dramatically different policy implications, both demonstrate Europe’s efforts to apply human rights to modern technology and to reconcile security, freedom of information, and privacy.