Judge Rules That Ex-Con Has 'Right to Be Forgotten'

A London judge has ruled that one businessman has a right to be forgotten and another does not, the Guardian reports. Justice Mark Warby's Friday ruling compels Google to delete search findings about the criminal conviction of a claimant known publicly as NT2, while NT1's conviction will remain online. NT1 was found guilty of conspiring to account falsely in the 1990s and served a four-year sentence, while NT2 conspired to intercept communications and served just four months. What's more, Warby says, NT2 has shown remorse, while NT1 "has not accepted his guilt, has misled the public and this court, and shows no remorse over any of these matters."

Warby also ruled that NT2 was unlikely to repeat his crime of invading someone's privacy, while NT1 "remains in business, and the information serves the purpose of minimizing the risk that he will continue to mislead, as he has in the past." Google had declined requests by both men to remove search results but says it will comply with the ruling, the BBC reports. The legal "right to be forgotten" precedent was set in a 2014 European Union case; since then Google has nixed some 800,000 pages but can refuse to delete search findings it deems of public interest. More "claims of this kind" are likely following NT2's legal victory, Warby tells the Guardian. (More Google stories.)