Search giant Google is embroiled in a controversy involving the French data regulator after the company refused to comply to the regulator's request. The 'right to be forgotten' policy has already been applicable in Europe, but in May this year, the data regulator in the country has requested that Google remove results that have already been seen by everyone.
France's Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés or CNIL has told the US-based internet giant that it must adhere to the 'right to be forgotten' policy. According to Business Spectator, CNIL has ordered that the policy be applied in all of the search major's domains, which includes google.com. If the company does not adhere to the policy, then it will have to face possible legal measures against it.
Google has refused to comply with the order, despite reportedly receiving over 320,000 requests to scrub data away from its search index. CNIL subsequently pressed charges against the company in June this year, which Google asked the regulator to drop. CNIL has rejected Google's appeal for the case to be dropped.
The French regulator is now considering punishing Google. CNIL addressed the issue in a statement saying, "The President of the CNIL rejects Google's informal appeal against the formal notice requesting it to apply delisting on all of the search engine's domain names". BBC reports that Google will face fines amounting to about 300,000 euros if it still refuses to comply with the order. The French regulator said that Google's approach allows easy access to data and private information which users don't want others to see.
The U.S. search giant has issued a response saying it has applied the ruling on its European domains. "We respectfully disagree with the idea that a single national Data Protection Authority should determine which web pages people in other countries can access via search engines," Google added.
