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Re:Google seeks to limit ‘right to be forgotten’ by claiming... by skybrian on Friday April 06, 2018 @03:52PM (#16776790)
I think this is much like the decision made by a journalist whether to publish.

Journalists sometimes talk about the public's "right to know". This directly contracts an individual's "right to privacy," so the journalist has to weigh balancing interests and make a decision. (If they screw up, the courts will review it, though the damage is done.)

Years later, it's not unreasonable for some other person to weigh these balancing interests again. Someone has to make the call balancing the public's "right to history" versus the individual's "right to be forgotten".

This can't be automated. You're not going to make a good decision without some person (journalist or historian) evaluating the particular case.

(By the way, I don't think talking about "rights" is at all that helpful when thinking about balancing conflicting interests.)

Re:Google seeks to limit ‘right to be forgotten’ by claiming... by thisiszilff on Saturday April 07, 2018 @12:55AM (#16779435)
This is a very good way of describing the problem. Journalists are humans that search out salient news and stories and work on bringing it before the public. There (should be) professional ethics in their work that inform these choices. Google, meanwhile, just throws up whatever it finds. It's doubtful a journalist would ever take interest in the odd smattering of risqué/questionable moments of your neighbor, but Google's more than happy to serve them all up at your request.