The European Union Court of Justice has ruled in favor of the so-called "right to be forgotten", in which outdated data on the internet should be erased upon request.

The case was launched upon the complaint of a Spanish man whose repossessed home appeared on Google's search engine under an auction notice, infringing his privacy, the BBC reported.

In the court's judgment, citizens have the right to request the removal of "inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant" information from search engines.

Google is concerned that the new measures are a form of censorship, and that the company does not control data, but only makes information freely available.