…and cowardice?

France’s privacy regulator, known as CNIL [National Commission for Computing and Liberties], last week fined Google €100,000 ($112,000) for not applying Europe’s “right to be forgotten” across the search engine’s global network of sites.

And

Now Paris contends that only a world-wide scrub will do. “For people residing in France to effectively exercise their right to be delisted, it must be applied to the entire processing operation,” the regulator says.  If it stands, this ruling would compel Google to remove links globally.

Aside from simple free speech questions in the land of Voltaire, this

limits the ability of non-Europeans to vet French prospective business associates or German job applicants.

To say nothing of the sovereignty of nations outside of France.  Or CNIL is saying the whole world is part of Metropolitan France.

This whole smelly affair should make it…difficult…to do business in France, for Google and for those non-Europeans.

Google says they’ll appeal, but then what?  Will they have the courage to ignore this idiocy, this arrogant power grab outside French borders?