Does your online past still haunt you?

Before the dawn of the digital age information would pass in and out of public consciousness with the time it took for a newspaper to be bought and discarded. A press report would quickly become "yesterday's news" and be overtaken current events. Information would disappear quickly from the mind of the public and whilst upsetting at the time these reports did not cast a long shadow into the future.

With an increasing reliance on the Internet and the increased importance of search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, this has now changed. Information, often in the form of newspaper articles, which is outdated and irrelevant can be dragged from the past into the present through the simple means of an Internet search.

This can be extremely distressing for the individual concerned and can often cause members of the public to have a distorted view of the person searched.

For example a search could reveal the fact that an individual was arrested by the Police on suspicion of a crime but not reveal that the individual was later exonerated and no charges brought. This is because the Internet search engine generates the results by analysing thousands, if not millions, of different pieces of indexed information on the Internet but does not consider other factors.

A recent ruling in the European Court has made it clear that Internet search engine providers such as Google, Yahoo or Bing are processing data and are subject to Data Protection laws including the right to be forgotten in respect of data which is outdated or irrelevant.

Simon Burn Solicitors have particular expertise in data protection and the misuse of private information. We are therefore well placed to use our expertise to assist individuals who believe that Internet search providers are not processing data about them fairly and/or misusing private information.

There are a variety of legal measures that can be taken to ensure that outdated or irrelevant information is not produced in response to an Internet search. This does not necessarily remove the information from the Internet but may prevent information being made prominent by an Internet search. If you think there is outdated, misleading or irrelevant information about you which is revealed through an Internet search then our service may assist you. We will work with you to try and obtain a remedy including the possibility of removing certain publications online from the Internet search result.

If you believe our service could assist you please contact Simon Burn on 01242 228444 (or at media@simonburn.com) for further details and we can start helping you straightaway. We offer a no cost review service in the first instance to see if we can use our expertise to help you.