312
EVI LASKARI, HONORARY VOLUME
TEIRESIAS S.A., where it set categories and corresponding time limits for the
maintenance of adverse financial data on the Internet.
17
B. Express denial of the right to be forgotten – the U.S.A.
The U.S. Supreme Court has taken the opposite approach in holding that states
cannot pass laws restricting the media from disseminating truthful but embar-
rassing information—such as the name of a rape victim—as long as the infor-
mation has been legally acquired.
18
Therefore, American legal thought reflects
an extreme form of non-recognition of the right to be forgotten, based on the
reasoning that the disclosure of criminal records is protected by the First Amend-
ment of the American Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech.
19
The
publication of someone’s criminal history is protected by the First Amendment,
which led Wikipedia to resist the efforts by two Germans convicted of murdering
a famous actor to remove their criminal history from the actor’s Wikipedia page.
20
The German case of Lebach, discussed above, highlights the differences between
the American and the European legal tradition regarding the right to be forgot-
ten and the right to free speech. This case highlights the importance of human
dignity and, in general, of one’s personality in German law. On the other hand,
in American legal theory, the application of the right to be forgotten is seen as a
case of judicial activism, in the sense that the court appears to be “discovering”
an enumeration of rights to personality that overshadow the right to expression
that has been expressly guaranteed.
21
A characteristic example of the non-recognition of the right to be forgotten can
be seen in the case of Stacy Snyder, a young American university student who
was about to graduate from the faculty of education when her employer, a state
17. See Greek Data Protection Authority Decision No. 523/19.10.1999, available at: www.
dpa.gr (Decisions), last accessed on 1 December 2012, and the analysis by Eugenia Alexan-
dropoulou-Aigiptiadou, Personal Data, Ant. N. Sakkoulas Press, Athens-Komotini 2007, p.
53. In Greek.
18. See
Florida Star v. B.J.F.
, 491 U.S. 524 (1989).
19. “The Congress cannot enact legislation on the establishment of religion or the prohibition of
the freedom of worship, just as it cannot pass laws that restrict the freedom of speech or of
the press or the citizens’ right to peaceful assembly and calling the Government to amend its
ideas”: See Kostas Mavrias/Antonis M. Pantelis, Constitutional Texts, Greek and Foreign, 3
rd
edition, Ant. N. Sakkoulas Press, Athens-Komotini 1996, p. 554. In Greek.
20. John Schwartz, Two German Killers Demanding Anonymity Sue Wikipedia’s Parent,
N.Y. TIMES, Nov. 12, 2009, at A13; see also Walter Sedlmayr, WIKIPEDIA, available
at:
, last access June 10, 2013).
21. See Edward J. Eberle
,
Human Dignity, Privacy and Personality in German and American
Constitutional Law, 1997 Utah Law Review, p. 963 et seq. (p. 1021).
