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posted by chromas on Monday January 21 2019, @09:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-her-name-was-[deleted] dept.

Submitted via IRC for Sulla

A Dutch surgeon formally disciplined for her medical negligence has won a legal action to remove Google search results about her case in a landmark "right to be forgotten" ruling.

The doctor's registration on the register of healthcare professionals was initially suspended by a disciplinary panel because of her postoperative care of a patient. After an appeal, this was changed to a conditional suspension under which she was allowed to continue to practise.

But the first results after entering the doctor's name in Google continued to be links to a website containing an unofficial blacklist, which it was claimed amounted to "digital pillory". It was heard that potential patients had found the blacklist on Google and discussed the case on a web forum.

Google and the Dutch data privacy watchdog, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, initially rejected attempts to have the links removed on the basis that the doctor was still on probation and the information remained relevant.

However, in what is said to be the first right to be forgotten case involving medical negligence by a doctor, the district court of Amsterdam subsequently ruled the surgeon had "an interest in not indicating that every time someone enters their full name in Google's search engine, (almost) immediately the mention of her name appears on the blacklist of doctors, and this importance adds more weight than the public's interest in finding this information in this way".

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/21/dutch-surgeon-wins-landmark-right-to-be-forgotten-case-google


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 23 2019, @03:59AM (3 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 23 2019, @03:59AM (#790451) Journal

    We have thousands of years of culture based on the presumption that it works.

    Nobody does culture because they assume it works. And culture != history.

  • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday January 23 2019, @03:26PM (2 children)

    by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday January 23 2019, @03:26PM (#790626)

    >Nobody does culture because they assume it works.
    Of course they do - cultural practices continue because people do things the way their parents did them, assuming that's the "right" way. And usually their parents did it that way because *their* parents did it that way, because their parents did it that way, because their parents did it that way...

    Culture is mostly an inter-generational game of telephone, and history is just a fiction built from the sparse records we have of previous generations.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:30AM (1 child)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:30AM (#791017) Journal
      I don't think you're getting the problem here. For example, you wrote [soylentnews.org] a while ago:

      A sound strategy that worked for a while - but how do you implement it when the megacorps basically own the government?

      In response to some AC's post about their perception of how to curb the power of governments, megacorps, accumulation of wealth, etc.

      Should it be legal for these megacorps to have the sort of power you think they have? Could criminal law provide a disincentive to some of the issues like bribery, fraud, embezzlement and theft, criminal negligence, etc. Or are such punishments of little use since corporate executives and rich people do things like bribe politicians or deliberately faking environmental tests in the heat of the moment? "I was going to the local pub, your honor, and one thing led to another. Before I knew it, I somehow had set up a $14 billion dollar pyramid scheme and fled to Brazil after accidentally wiring all that money to the Cayman Islands. I must have had a few too many!"

      Crime isn't just irrational stuff or culture. It's also about preventing large destructive acts from greed or avarice.

      • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday January 24 2019, @05:29AM

        by Immerman (3985) on Thursday January 24 2019, @05:29AM (#791071)

        Could it? Certainly - if you can manage to get the legislation passed, and then enforced. And we have made some progress in that direction.

        I read your comment as more targetted at blue-collar crime, what with appeasing the mob and all. The mob rarely get appeased when white-collar crimes are involved.