At the moment whatever appears on the internet is indexed and can appear whenever someone searches against your name even where the incident or event occurred many years ago.
In the Spanish case before the courts today Mr Gonzalez ran into financial difficulties sixteen years ago and as a result his property was put up for auction. Even today when searching for his name, search engines prominently display this information and Mr Gonzalez claims this has damaged his reputation and should be removed from search engine results.
The court has agreed and even though this case is within the Spanish legal system it does reinforce the EU's attempts for a new law to be introduced on data privacy allowing the 'right to be forgotten' principle to apply.
The EU are looking at significant consequences for any breach with a fine of 1% of global revenues if the full proposals are passed.
The decision has also created a precedent in enforcing a ruling from within the European Union against an American company. Ms Reding of the EU commission stated that US firms "can no longer hide behind their servers being based in California or anywhere in the world".
