Strike one up for the little guy. (Yeah, right!) So called ‘privacy advocates’ (and who isn’t when it comes to their own information?) are hopping for joy over the European Court of Justice, the European Union’s highest court ruling that we all have a digital right for certain data historic data points to be ‘forgotten’. Google, which delivers 90% of all search in Europe, is rightly worried that the ruling will mean it faces a huge burden which none of its clever algorithms will be able to spirit away. Tech companies are all about automation and scale. Try calling Google with a service question and their response is reduced to the voice activated morass of all big companies. They are simply not set up to deal with grit in the Oyster. Still, they’re smart enough to spot a nightmare when it’s on the horizon. But does the wider business information industry?
Let’s face it when Equifax gets sued because it’s technical and customer service systems can’t handle a chap called ‘God’, what chance does the credit reporting industry have when European punters notice just how much historic data these companies have? What’s more, so much of it is being sold to third parties who aggregate it and post snippets freely to attract web traffic so that visitors will purchase the more up-to-date variety (full disclosure: I built a whole business around this model) it won’t be long before the ECJ’s ruling is a real business disruptor for big business information companies like Equifax, Experian and Dun and Bradstreet. Sleep now while the going's good...
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