AEPD (Spain) - EXP202202000
| AEPD - PD-00081-2022 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Authority: | AEPD (Spain) |
| Jurisdiction: | Spain |
| Relevant Law: | Article 17 GDPR Article 17(3)(b) GDPR |
| Type: | Complaint |
| Outcome: | Rejected |
| Started: | 02.02.2022 |
| Decided: | 16.08.2022 |
| Published: | 16.08.2022 |
| Fine: | n/a |
| Parties: | Google LLC |
| National Case Number/Name: | PD-00081-2022 |
| European Case Law Identifier: | n/a |
| Appeal: | n/a |
| Original Language(s): | Spanish |
| Original Source: | AEPD (in ES) |
| Initial Contributor: | PL |
The AEPD dismissed a complaint brought by a data subject against Google LLC for failing to fulfil a request to exercise their rights afforded by the GDPR and local Spanish data protection law.
English Summary
Facts
The complainant exercised their right to erasure by requesting Google LLC the deindexation of 4 URLs that contained their personal data. The AEPD proceeded to transfer the complaint to Google's Data Protection Officer who indicated that this request had previously been denied in two instances by email. However, during the investigation of this complaint, Google LLC reconsidered its final decision and removed 2 of the 4 reported URLs.
In response, Google LLC explained that the two remaining URLs refer to information that is relevant and of public interest related to the professional life of the interested party. In particular, these are two resolutions related to the opposition to the General Administrative Body of the State, where a provisional list of applicants admitted by the Court of Opposition to the General Administrative Body of the State Administration, in the specialty of Statistics, and a provisional assessment of the merits obtained by the applicants admitted to the Reference Opposition, in this case issued by the Qualifying Court of the tests for admission to the Corps.
Google further noted that the resolutions date, respectively, from November 2020 and July 2021, and both were published in accordance with the regulations applicable in the digital headquarters of the National Institute of Statistics. The resolutions are considered to be of public relevance, so that they are accessible without restrictions and can also be located through search engines. It also argued that institutional websites play a very important role in keeping society informed of matters that public authorities consider to be of interest for citizens and that the information that is published is accessible without restrictions.
Google argued that the CJEU has declared that blocking search results may have an impact on the legitimate interest of users potentially interested in having access to the information in question, and that for this reason only search results should be blocked, after the appropriate weighing between the different rights at stake, taking into account the nature of the information in question, the sensitive nature of the private life of the affected person and the interest of the public in having this information, which may vary, for example, depending on the role that the interested party plays in public life. The right to erasure, also known as the right to be forgotten is a right that finds its limit in freedom of information. It is a right that cannot imply a retrospective censorship of the information correctly published at the time, and that does not allow the construction of a past tailored to the people mentioned in the information accessible on the Web.
The AEPD was not satisfied that the request of the data subject had been properly addressed, therefore it admitted the complaint and provided Google LLC with 15 days to present all pertinent allegations. In response, Google LLC confirmed its previous position and added that in view of the decision to make the information in question accessible without restrictions, it can be concluded that the authorities (the publisher website) have determined that their public interest must prevail over the right to data protection of the complaining party.
Holding
In reaching its decision, the AEPD followed the Mario Costeja González ruling to determine that:
- The operator of the search engine is the data controller in determining the purposes and means of its activity.
- Data subjects have the possibility of exercising the right of erasure before the Internet search engine without having to contact the owner of the website who published the information in dispute.
- The balancing assessment to be conducted when several competing rights are at play, i.e. freedom of expression, right to privacy, and public interest. The AEPD stated that in order to assess the public relevance of the matter, it must be analysed whether the published information continues to be of general interest due to the time that has elapsed.
Finally, the AEPD moved on to considered whether or not the request to disassociate the complainant's name from the URLs in question should be fulfilled. It was confirmed that after carrying out a search based on the name of the complaining party, a list of results is accessed in which the complainant's information and personal data appear. This information refers to publications about the complainant's professional life. That is, participation in the public selective process.
The AEPD considered that this processing activity falls under the exception established in Article 17(3)(b) GDPR which indicates that the Right to Erasure shall not apply to the extent that processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation which requires processing by Union or Member State law to which the controller is subject or for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller. In this case, Law 39/2015, of October 1, on the Common Administrative Procedure of Administrations, provides that administrative acts will be published when so established by the regulations governing each procedure or when advised by reasons of public interest by a competent body. Likewise, section 7 of the LOPDGDD determines that " Whenever is necessary the publication of an act that is n is necessary to contain personal data of the affected party, it will be identified by the name and surname of the affected party, adding four random numerical figures of the national identity document, foreign identity number, passport or equivalent document", such publication of personal data does not depend on the will of the interested party. In this case, the AEPD agreed that the remaining URLs complied with these specifications.
Consequently, the AEPD dismissed the complainant's claim with respect to the two remaining URLs.
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English Machine Translation of the Decision
The decision below is a machine translation of the Spanish original. Please refer to the Spanish original for more details.
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