The Court of Justice of the European Union recently confirmed that EU residents have the right to remove from online access information about themselves which is inadequate, no longer relevant or excessive.

The case, involving Google, ruled that links to publicly available information about a person must be deleted from search results in certain circumstances. This only applies within the EU, but is relevant to all online information. Australian businesses with overseas operations, particularly in the EU, may have to delete access to online information if requested. 

Australia is among a number of countries evaluating a right to be forgotten. Of significance in the debate is balancing the individual's rights to control access to information about themselves against the public's rights to freedom of expression and access to public information. 

Practical obstacles to consider include the difficulty of ensuring that all online copies of published information are deleted, and that deleting personal information in a public record or relating to multiple people may not be included in such a right.

In its March 2014 discussion paper, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) proposed a new "right to be deleted". This would allow individuals to compel organisations to delete or de-identify online information about them, but would not apply to personal information about them posted by third parties.

The federal government will determine whether the ALRC's final recommendations will be incorporated into the legislative agenda.

By Dan Brush and Alison Cairns, CBP Lawyers