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After years of disputes, Google loses in Swedish court. According to administrative law, the company violates the GDPR regulation on how to process personal data when a person wants a search on himself to be deleted.
Google must pay a fine of SEK 52 million. However, the verdict can be appealed. Stock Photography.
The Stockholm Administrative Court arrived on Monday with a ruling that has its record in disputes with the search giant that began in 2015.
The case is about how Google processes personal data in relation to a person who wishes to remove search results on their own behalf. For example, this could be a person who wants to remove the search results that appear in a newspaper article, blog, or forum with problematic information about the person.
When a search result is removed, Google informs the webmaster of the site that a request has been made and that the search result is no longer displayed.
– The webmaster can often use this information to find out who made the request. For example, if you lead to an article that deals only with one person, says Karl Lundberg, a councilor at the Stockholm administrative court.
The information that Google sends does not contain names, but the link that has been removed. Using the exclusion method, the webmaster can list who has had the search result removed.
Among other things, this is what the administrative court considers contrary to the EU Data Protection Regulation GDPR.
“Google’s practice of regularly informing webmasters that one or more search results have been removed as a result of an individual’s request is not permitted under the Data Protection Regulation,” the ruling said.
The dispute is several years old and has been the subject of legal proceedings, Google and the Swedish Data Inspectorate. The latter ordered Google to cease its routines in eight weeks. The sentence now proves it, but it has not yet acquired legal force and can and is expected to be appealed.
– The Data Inspectorate has ordered Google to stop sending such messages unless the individual agrees, says Karl Lundberg, and says this is the first decision of its kind in Sweden.
At the same time, the search giant must pay a penalty fee totaling SEK 52 million, of which SEK 50 million correspond to notifications to webmasters, and SEK 2 million apply to a person who has Complained about the search results that appear in the Flashback discussion forum.
It was in 2014 that the person informed Google that they wanted Flashback search results to be removed, while the search giant did not think it was clearly defined what was meant. However, the Data Inspectorate found the request clear and the administrative court now supports that reasoning. The person has also turned to Google for several years regarding new meetings leading to the same discussion thread.
Google believes that the webmaster information is necessary for purposes related to the fundamental right of search engine providers, webmasters and Internet users to freedom of expression and information.
