390 NEWSLETTER 2021 name into Google, one of the first results was an article in La Vanguardia about him having to sell his property many years before due to his social security debts. In his complaint, Gonz lez requested that La Vanguardia either remove the article in question or arrange it so that his personal data could not be seen, and asked Google Spain or Google Inc. to ensure that personal data concerning him was not listed in the search results, on the grounds that the proceedings against him had been completely concluded years earlier and that any references to them were unwarranted and irrelevant.4 The Spanish Data Protection Authority rejected the complaint about the newspaper on the grounds that was obligatory, under national legislation, to announce the relevant information about the applicant, and that many people had an interest in accessing this information. On the other hand, with the decision, Google was ordered to remove the relevant links, on the grounds that search engine operators are subject to data protection legislation as data controllers. Upon the appeal of this decision by Google, the Spanish National Court of Cassation also took the case to the ECJ for its opinion on the matter. In its decision, the ECJ stated that the personal data and the results listed in the search engine that were “invalid, incomplete, completely irrelevant or subsequently irrelevant” should be deleted, and held that the right to privacy is more important than the economic interest of the search engine and the right of the public to access information. The right to be forgotten, embodied after this decision, is framed by thirteen recommended criteria set by the Working Group, which was established as an independent advisory board on data protection and privacy in accordance with Article 29 of Directive 95/46/EC and the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force by repealing Directive 95/46/EC. After this regulation, the concepts of personal data and the right to be forgotten began to be discussed in many countries, including the United States. In addition, the decision of the ECJ paved the way for important steps to be taken in practice and enabled the search engines to start evaluating the requests for the right to be forgotten. In its transparency 4 Nalbantoğlu, Seray: The Right to Be Forgotten as a Fundamental Right. the Turkish Justice Academy Journal, Year 9, No. 35 (July 2018).
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