Julie L. Kessler
lawyer traveler writer

News

Privacy rights v. Free speech

My article “If it’s on the Web, it’s true, right?” appears in today’s edition of The L.A. Daily Journal. The article discusses how your basic right to privacy stacks up against the competing interest of free speech.

 

The article also examines the right-to-be-forgotten rules as interpreted and applied by the European Court of Justice in the May 2014 Gonzalez case, as well as the recent decision by France’s Commission Nationale de l’informatique et des Libertes (CNIL) to order Google to apply those rules internationally. Google declined.

 

Legitimate arguments are present on both sides: Is it Internet censorship or the legitimate protection of one’s right to privacy?

 

There is now pending a case before the Federal Trade Commission against Google filed by the adovcacy group Consumer Watchdog, alleging that Google’s conduct is an “unfair and deceptive practice” under the FTC Act.

 

Is the price we pay for our critically important right of free speech that we have zero control over our Internet presence even when that information is misleading, incorrect or just plain wrong?

Date Posted:  Aug. 17 2015