Although this figure generates debate, it is already in the Basic Data Protection Regulation of the European Union and creates jurisprudence for other countries.
Just type your full name in the search bar of platforms such as Google or Mozila to get information about you. In the first results the link to your Facebook profile, LinkedIn, Twitter, or, if you have higher education, to the repository of research papers or thesis that you have done.
In a hyper-connected society, the idea seemed to take hold that whoever is not on the internet “does not exist”. However, in this expansion of the internet, there are now more and more critical voices that demand the need for limits and to provide citizens with mechanisms to guarantee their rights, especially when it comes to information that is not disclosed or disseminated by them and that they are not in the public interest. Hence the so-called right to be forgotten.
Cases related to job dismissals due to information published on social networks or data related to the selection of personnel where the network is traced to analyze job candidates are some of the examples why citizens want to disappear or restrict their presence in the net.
Is that on official websites, social networks and media You can find, with a single click, data such as pardons, convictions already paid, victims of domestic violence, registration of traffic violations, viral videos or photos of inappropriate actions carried out when the person was young, reactions product of immaturity, or of being intoxicated. All with identification of its beneficiaries.
The data increases, especially news, if the person is of public relevance, such as politicians, activists, authorities, businessmen, actors, etc.
But where does the right to be forgotten come from and what does it mean?
It is a legal figure that has been developing mainly in Europe. The idea came from the Austrian lawyer Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, who asked, in the late 2000s, that digital information be set for an expiration date so that it is automatically erased after a certain period of time.
Although this proposal has not been fully accepted for now, it has raised the debate and the right to be forgotten has been adopted in parts in the European Union (EU). In a 2014 ruling by the EU Court of Justice, the judges ruled in favor of a Spaniard who had asked Google to remove obsolete information about him from search results.
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This ruling, which was described as historic, gave EU citizens the opportunity to ask search engines to remove sensitive personal information. In 2018, this right was enshrined in the Basic Data Protection Regulation of the EU.
Since then, the courts have had to analyze between the right to respect for private life and the protection of personal data by the interested party and the business freedom of the search engine operator, says Víctor Cazurro, director of the Master of Data Protection of the International University of La Rioja.
However, the data or information cannot be deleted, for example, if there is a public interest in a person or if the information is of special “social or public interest” even years after being disseminated.
“With this European regulation, every citizen (who comes from Europe) has the right to ask internet search engines, the media, the websites to remove old links, information that was news in its day and is no longer of public interest and that may harm the privacy of the owner”Says Cazurro.
For Miguel Ángel Mendoza, cybersecurity expert at ESET Latin America, the right to be forgotten can only be exercised by Europeans now and does not have a global application: “In Latin America it does not exist as such.”
Several South American countries, including Ecuador, have passed laws to protect the personal data of their citizens, especially so that they are not harassed by companies that offer different services or are victims of scam.
In Ecuador only since May of this year the Organic Law on Personal Data Protection has been in force. This regulation speaks of the prohibition of commercializing databases, it does not include the figure of the right to be forgotten.
“However, with Europe, jurisprudence is already being generated and many Latin American countries must begin to incorporate it. An example is the Budapest convention (created with the aim of protecting society against cybercrime and internet crime, by drawing up appropriate laws, improving investigative techniques and increasing international cooperation)”Says Mendoza.
How complex is it to apply the right to be forgotten?
In Europe, at first it was established that Internet search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) had to take on the task of eliminating the information. These platforms increased their technological and human resources to process the requests that began to arrive to remove the data.
However, courts such as Spanish, in 2015, said that this was debatable and that search engines should not assume this responsibility alone, so the interested party can also contact the media, government institution, website or blog that published the information.
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Although people can contact institutions directly to request the deletion of data, the process is not that easy, says Mendoza.
“A few years ago a report was published indicating that Google rejected more than 50% of the requests for the right to be forgotten. It is a very high percentage because six out of ten requests were directly canceled by the company”, He says.
The study the specialist is talking about was released in 2016 and states that the largest internet search engine received 255,143 removal requests. The removal requests were made for a wide range of content, from harassment online and serious criminal records to embarrassing photos and personal information.
To support its action, Google cited an example in which a doctor requested that more than 50 newspaper articles about a failed procedure be deleted. Finally, the searcher removed only three in which the doctor was mentioned by name, but in which the procedure was not referred to.
Five of the most cited sites for erasing information were classified as “social media”:
- Google Groups
- YouTube
- Google plus
“Governments do not have so much interference in large technology companies today and this is due to a flaw in their laws and, especially, the complications they have to put rights into practice and sometimes they remain as good intentions” says Mendoza.
Can this right be used to “erase” acts of corruption by politicians, for example?
If a politician who has been sentenced and has served his sentence for a corruption case requests to delete this data from the web, it must be a judge who determines whether these events are no longer news.
“If that politician was inactive and intends to stand in the elections, but the acts of corruption happened five years ago, he would not have the right to be forgotten, since he is a public figure and the information is in the public interest. However, if that politician has been retired from politics for 20 years, away from public life and protecting his private life, a court would probably agree with him and give him the right to be forgotten”Says Cazurro.
In addition, a politician could request that “accessory” or “disproportionate” information about a specific news event that happened to him be deleted.
For instance, If a senior official committed a misdemeanor and the media covers the news, but adds data such as the names of the children or where they study, which are not related to the case, the politician can ask that this particular information be erased.
“This is not to say that the media ends up with their archives or archives, but rather that they articulate the appropriate technical formula to block that data. They can reformulate or rewrite that article and block certain words, ”says Cazurro.
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These are the “grays” that this legal figure has that a priori It is positive, but it must continue to be polished and outlined so as not to leave gaps that can be used for unethical interests, the specialists point out.
“At the end of the day, the laws are also interpretations and without a doubt someone can take advantage of it to cover certain activities related to acts of corruption,” says Mendoza.
In fact, in Europe there are consulting firms, law firms and other types of companies that offer to “clean” the image of a person on the internet.
Can you really erase a person’s entire digital record?
No. It is very complex to do so even if the right to be forgotten is applied, Cazurro and Mendoza agree.
If the media where the information or data was originally published decides to erase it, the replicator effect that the internet has makes it almost impossible to eliminate the trace. That is, if another medium, website or blog took the information and replicated it, the record will continue on the internet.
“It is very difficult to erase our entire record for all the services we use today. We would need to be totally disconnected on the internet to not leave a fingerprint, but this is practically impossible, since we use social networks, email, we pay for some service. What we can do is ensure privacy and restrict certain data”, says Mendoza. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
