Privacy, Freedom of Expression, and the Right to Be Forgotten in Europe

In this chapter, Stefan Kulk & Frederik Zuiderveen Borgesius discuss the relation between privacy and freedom of expression in Europe. In principle, the two rights have equal weight in Europe – which right prevails depends on the circumstances of a case. To illustrate the difficulties when balancing privacy and freedom of expression, the authors discuss the Google Spain judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union, sometimes called the ‘right to be forgotten’ judgment. The court decided in Google Spain that people have, under certain conditions, the right to have search results for their name delisted. The authors discuss how Google and Data Protection Authorities deal with such delisting requests in practice. Delisting requests illustrate that balancing privacy and freedom of expression interests will always remain difficult.