The Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA) has rejected an appeal by an ex-terrorist, who had requested the de-indexation of web pages reporting serious crimes he had committed between the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s.
Having served his sentence, in 2009 the man had requested Google to remove a number of URLs and search suggestions shown by their “autocomplete” function, which, when typing in the man’s name and surname, called up the term “terrorist”.
Given that Google took no action regarding the claimant’s request, the ex-terrorist turned to the Italian DPA complaining that the continued presence on the Internet of contents dating so far back in time and which were a misrepresentation of his current way of life, was causing serious harm both to his personal and professional life. Maintaining that he was not a public figure but a free citizen, the claimant demanded the right to be forgotten.
The DPA rejected his appeal on the grounds that the information, for which de-indexation was requested, refers to particularly serious crimes that come under those indicated in the Guidelines on the implementation of the right to be forgotten adopted in 2014 by the European Privacy Authorities; crimes for which requests for removal require more stringent evaluation.
The DPA further emphasized that in the case submitted, all the information has acquired historical value and is in the public mind. Indeed it refers to one of the darkest periods of recent Italian history, during which the claimant had not only been a supporting actor but had essentially played a leading role.
Moreover, despite the considerable length of time, which had passed since the circumstances in question, there is still a very high level of public interest in that period of time and those events, as demonstrated by the topicality of the references accessible through the same URLs.
Therefore, declaring that it was of paramount importance for the public interest to have access to the information in question, the DPA adjudged the request for removal of the URLs indicated by the claimant and indexed by Google to be unfounded.
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