'Streisand Effect' spectre in Google privacy case

The "Streisand Effect" refers to when attempts to get photos of Barbra Streisand's home removed from the internet backfired in 2003, with publicity leading thousands of people to look at the pictures on the Internet. Photo / AP

Google's efforts to stoke a European debate on Internet privacy may be overshadowed by a cameo appearance by Barbra Streisand.

More than a decade before Google was ordered by the top EU court to remove links to information that was outdated or irrelevant, Streisand had already obtained a reputation as a privacy diva.

In 2003, attempts to get photos of her Malibu, California, home taken down backfired, with publicity leading thousands of people to look at the pictures on the Internet.

Poland invoked the name of the 72-year-old singer to criticise parts of proposed changes to draft legislation that would entrench EU citizens' "right to be forgotten."

Poland said proposals that would require websites to share requests to delete personal information with other sites risked creating a "Streisand effect" and draw more attention to the original story or document, in an EU paper summarising its views.

EU states are weighing possible changes to draft data-protection rules they plan to agree next year in the wake of a May ruling from the EU's Court of Justice that told Google to cut links on request from an individual. Google opposed the judgment and is calling for a "robust debate" on the right to be forgotten. Company officials and academics will meet in Paris tomorrow to discuss the issue after criticism of its handling of the ruling.

Regulators across Europe have chided Google for telling websites, including British newspapers, that it plans to delete links to some articles. The notifications prompted the publication of new stories about Google, the court ruling and the content of the tale in the deleted link.

Poland's comments targeted an Italian proposal, which it said assumes that a person wants to delete information from all websites and might require a company handling a request for deletion to contact "significant number of social networks' users or web page users" to remove the data.

People should be able to choose to limit where some data appears, Poland said. A person may object to school photos showing up in search engine results while having "nothing against this picture remaining on the school's website or an online forum where former students communicate," it said.

Neither Al Verney, a spokesman for Google in Brussels, nor Artur Habant, a spokesman for the Polish representation to the EU, responded to an email seeking comment.

The singer's unsuccessful legal attempts to get a website to remove photos of her Malibu, California, home helped make the pictures an Internet hit and led Mike Masnick of the Techdirt blog to coin the phrase "Streisand effect."

- Bloomberg