“Denegri” Case: Consent to Allow for the Interference in Strictly Personal Rights, Public Interest, and Search Engines

Abstract

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation has recently decided in the ruling Denegri that the passage of time does not render obsolete information that was of public interest at the time of its publication. Given that it is protected by the right to information and freedom of the press without prior censorship, the right to be forgotten cannot be based exclusively on the mere passage of time, being only the affectation of a very personal right that allows its recognition. In the present commentary, a brief examination of the ruling is carried out, reflecting with special attention on certain relevant points such as the consent in relation to personal rights given by subjects in a situation of vulnerability, the criteria used by the Supreme Court to define what information is of public interest and the Court’s obiter dictum on the lack of neutrality in search engine results.