Japanese court demands ‘right to be forgotten’ for sex offender
A Tokyo court has ordered that Google remove any results linked to the arrest of a man, after a judge ruled that he deserves to rebuild his life ‘unhindered’ by online records of his criminal history.
Citing the right to be forgotten, the Saitma district court demanded the removal of all personal information online related to the conviction. While the decision was made back in December, the case has only recently been revealed publicly following the discovery of leaked court papers.
The news is expected to spark controversy in Japan over whether legal authorities should have the power to resolve an individual’s right to privacy, in the case of a crime committed in the past. The question remains if freedom of information and the public’s right to know should remain in tact.
Judge Hisaki Kobayashi argued that, dependent on the nature of the crime, an individual should be able to go through a fair rehabilitation process, which would include a clean sheet on their online records after a certain amount of time has passed.
“Criminals who were exposed to the public due to media reports of their arrest are entitled to the benefit of having their private life respected and their rehabilitation unhindered,” said Kobayashi, according to local Japanese reports. He added that without this protection it would be extremely hard for an individual to lead a normal life.
In this case, the unnamed man had requested that information from more than three years ago, related to his child prostitution and pornography crimes (for which he was fined 500,000 yen – approx. £3,170), be removed from Google’s results. He complained that whenever his name or address is typed into the search bar, the case appears.
While the man’s record no longer appears in the search results, Google has still appealed against the ruling in the high court.
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Good thinking JR! I like that idea!
This brings forth one of the biggest problems with the internet and the huge internet presences like Google. Every country int he World had different laws and citizens rights – in Japan it maybe his civil right to have all information gone once sentence is served. Google and the rest of them cannot continue to operate as if the whole World falls on the same rules as theirs. Just because the USA citizens have completely lost any right to privacy sanctioned by our government does not mean every country allows their citizens to be treated that way.
Agreed, but Google has altered its business practices due to the laws of other countries (China being the biggest, most oppressive of information availability)
I’ve often wondered what legal foundation we would have in not attacking the public registry directly but going after 3rd party sites and search engines. Meaning let the National and State registries be public but legally challenge the posting of the information second-handedly and restricting search engines from displaying individual’s information.
Example: Someone wants to search the National Registry? Great… They must access that site directly.
Someone “Googles” Jon Doe S.O. And Google does not display Jon Doe’s SO flyer but simply directs to the National Site for the person to search
Perhaps this question has been legally answered and I’m not aware of it?
“Kid Safe” websites AND those that offer registry searches and alerts likely have less resources to defend themselves compared to that of the DOJ.