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The right to be forgotten, also known as RTBF, is a special right according to which the person has all the right to completely remove their private information on the internet if there’s any. This right is mostly used under special circumstances. Recently, this right came into the limelight when an American citizen of India decided to file a petition to eliminate the judgement about him, which was still a part of the internet. After listening to him, in April 2021, the Delhi High Court passed an order to Google and Indian Kannon to remove the judgement from all over the internet. Today, in this article, we will be studying the right to be forgotten in detail.
What is the Right to be Forgotten?
The right to be forgotten (RTBF) is the right issued by several governments of the world where an individual has all the rights to where they can appeal to the court to remove their private information from the internet searches, websites, databases, or any other platform which the general public can access. In 2014, it was the first-ever time when this right was truly implied.
In Spain, an individual appealed to Google to eliminate certain links from the internet search which talked about his earlier bankruptcy. Since he paid all debts, he thought these links unsuitable. After much research, the European court of justice decided to rule against Google. It announced that every individual has the right to get their personal information removed in case of irrelevancy.
Note that the right to be forgotten and privacy are two different rights practised on different parameters. The right to privacy mainly deals with the piece of information which isn’t available on the internet, whereas the right to be forgotten talks about publicly known information and applies barriers not to let the third party access that information anymore. This right is mainly exercised in European countries.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Right to be Forgotten
The main reason behind the right to be forgotten is to protect the person’s reputation. However, it does have its own set of pros and cons. Below is a list of advantages and disadvantages of the right to be forgotten.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Right to be Forgotten | |
Advantages | Disadvantages |
As per the right to be forgotten, an individual has the power to control what information about them the general public can access. | The needs of the individual for privacy sometimes gets overridden by the overall interest of the public to view and access a particular piece of information. |
This right can remove libellous, slanderous information from the internet, webpages, and other public platforms. | This right places several restrictions on the freedom given to the journalist, media, and other parties. |
The RTBF can eliminate illegally uploaded information about a person by any third party. | RTBF is broad and is still under development. |
This act gives an opportunity to the people to start fresh. | Everytime the search engines are requested to remove any piece of information, it takes a lot of time to actually remove it. |
Details that are a threat to financial and personal security can be removed under this act. | There is a lack of transparency surrounding critical information about a person or business. |
What is the position of the right to be forgotten in India?
Till today, the right to be forgotten has not been implemented in India; however, it is recognised in the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019. There have been several cases when this right was performed to a greater extent. Here are some of them –
1- In 2016, the Delhi High Court heard the case of an individual where they requested the court to delete the information regarding his marriage dispute appearing on internet searches. He said since he and his wife had resolved the issue internally, there is no need for such articles or information on the internet or public domain.
2- In January 2017, a lady in Karnataka appealed to the court to examine the matter of her marriage as she claimed that the name written on her marriage certificate is not the person she married. Once the matter was resolved, her father appealed to the court to remove any wrong information from the internet or other search engines since her name showed up as a criminal in the high court.
Conclusion
In this Introduction to the right to be forgotten, we discussed the significance of the right to be forgotten. An individual has all the right to remove their private information on the internet altogether if there’s any. The right to be forgotten has not been implied in India; however, it is recognised in the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019.
