Data Privacy and Intermediary Liability: Striking a Balance Between Privacy, Reputation, Innovation, and Freedom of Expression

摘要

This article has touched on only some of the issues that have been raised by the Costeja case. There are many more-and this is just in regard to English law. If the position was not complicated enough for Internet intermediaries before Costeja, it has just got a whole lot worse. Some clarity and consistency is needed. When the DP Directive was enacted in 1996 and the E-Commerce Directive was enacted shortly after in 2000, Google had not been established long and was a long way off being the dominant search provider that it is today, Facebook, and Twitter were several years away from existence, and mobile phones (without Internet connection) were just starting to take-off. We now inhabit a completely different world and the way we find information has completely changed. The laws therefore need to change too-without simply trying to interpret old laws to fit new surroundings.