Facebook will discuss ‘right to be forgotten’ with German regulators

Facebook has been drawn into the debate over the "right to be forgotten" as the social networking site will meet with a German data protection regulator to discuss jurisdictional issues raised by a European court ruling.

The ruling, in addition to creating the ability for individuals to seek the deletion of links to personal data, gives national data regulators more authority over companies based outside their borders, said Johannes Caspar, head of the data protection office in Hamburg. Facebook will meet to discuss the ruling by the European Court of Justice as soon as next month, he said.

Facebook, which has its EU headquarters in Dublin and is primarily overseen by Ireland on European data protection issues, has clashed with German regulators over who can force the company to change policies. The Menlo Park, California-based company scored repeated victories in German courts that backed its stand that only the Irish regulator could supervise it.