A debt collection industry group has suggested the recent controversy over the removal of personal information from search engines could lead to people rewriting their credit histories. A decision by the European Court to grant a Spanish national the 'right to erase' links to articles about him on Google sparked fears it will curtail freedom of information and cover up wrong-doing. The man in question asked Google to remove search links which pointed to articles concerning his house repossession for debt repayments, which he argued was now 'irrelevant' as it occurred in the late 1990s and is now a violation of his privacy rights. The Credit Services Association say this could see the indebted in Britain attempting to manipulate their own credit histories by requesting the removal of links that make them look more unworthy of credit in the future.

CSA chief executive Peter Wallwork said: 'The new regulations are designed to protect consumers, which we would applaud, but in their current guise and the laws of unintended consequences they will have the complete opposite effect. 'Under the new rules, it could be possible for an individual to delete information on their credit history that they do not like, and denying businesses access to what is called ‘sensitive data’ such as information on bankruptcy or outstanding County Court Judgments is lunacy. 'Lenders will have incomplete credit histories on which to base their lending decisions, and collections agencies will have an even more difficult time in recovering what is legally owed. 'Far from protecting the consumer, it might make life more difficult for them.' It remains to be seen whether the CSA's fears are well founded, particularly given that the European Court hearing only acceded to the removal of search links, and not the content of the articles themselves.