European court ruling on privacy could give boost to US privacy advocates

The highest court in the European Union ruled that search engines such as Google have a responsibility to allow individuals the right to scrub their online histories.

The decision, handed down by the Court of Justice of the European Union, puts the onus on search engine operators to field and evaluate appeals from individuals who want to have links to harmful or unflattering content removed from their services, even if the material was published legally or as part of media coverage or government postings.

Along with its effect on Google, the decision has the potential to affect the operations of all search engines in Europe, including Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing.

The European court's ruling is unlikely to spark any fast movement among US lawmakers, who have long dragged their feet in producing privacy legislation, Fordham Law professor Joel Reidenberg said. But it does add ammunition to those fighting for similar provisions in America, he said, by providing "a degree of international legal support."