My Take | Don't follow EU's bad privacy ruling in Hong Kong

It sounds less ominous in Spanish. After all, the case that started the imbroglio originated from Spain. Derecho al olvido means roughly the right to turn over a new leaf. In French, it's droit à l'oubli, which is close to the English of "the right to be forgotten".

People in the European Union with links on the internet to public records they are unhappy about can now demand Google and other search engines delete such references, after a ruling by the highest court of the EU last month.

A Financial Times commentator who denounced the absurdity of the ruling wrote at the time: "Those in the US and Asia will remain unaffected, rather as Google in Hong Kong presents the search results that the Chinese government refuses to permit on the mainland …

"Before long, people's search results will start to resemble official biographies, recording only the facts that they want other people to know, and not the reality."

He spoke too soon. Our privacy chief Allan Chiang Yam-wang wants Google in Hong Kong and other jurisdictions across Asia to offer a similar service.

There is a difference, though. In the EU, the service is demanded by law. In Asia, it would be out of the goodness of Google.