ECJ advocate general says right to be forgotten should only apply in EU

As part of the legal case between Google and the French data protection authority (CNIL) on the enforcement of the right to be forgotten at the global level, the advocate general of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently gave his preliminary opinion that this right should be enforceable only in the EU and not worldwide. As reported by the Guardian, final judgments by the ECJ usually endorse initial opinions. The advocate general developed the argument that if such global ‘de-referencing’ was allowed, the EU would not be able to balance it against other fundamental rights related to data protection and privacy.