Do you have the right to be forgotten?

I am just wondering what people's opinion are on this. Over here in Europe we have "Article 12 of the Directive 95/46/EC" which gives the legal base for protection from the Internet for individuals.

In May 2014 the European Court of Justice ruled against Google in a case brought by a Spanish man who wanted to remove a Google listing which showed an article from 1998 about an auction for his foreclosed home, a debt that he subsequently paid.

In the U.S. you have very strong freedom of speech laws, therefore do you even have the right to be forgotten from search engines? Is it a bad thing your search engine can be manipulated, we had the Internet around for 10+ years without any of this legislation.

What's your opinion?

Should Americans Have The Right To Be Forgotten? - Forbes

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

jibbajabba

You don't mention what your opinion is actually

Personally I am not sure what to think. Nowadays everyone posts their life stories on facebook, their work history on linkedin and their personal baby photos on flickr and whatnot. Asking then to be "forgotten" seems a bit hypocritical.

Having said that - If say, someone got a bit too close to the police at a young age and the local law removes these entries after x-amount of years, then I think you shouldn't be able to "google" those naughty days. Companies nowadays using all sorts of tactics to dig up dirt before they are hiring you.

But again - who posts those details - what IS google showing ? Is that because someone mentions it ? Is it because public records are indexed ?

I don't know .. the more I think about it, the more I could come up with a pro and con ..

Asif Dasl

Yeah I'm not too sure myself, it's kinda why I asked.. Everyone has a right to privacy but at the same time with social networking and people putting everything online it seems as if more and more things aren't private and you *have to* live publicly online. As if my every waking thought must be searchable. If you aren't on Facebook or whatever - you get a look like you've two heads or something!

I know in the U.S. political donations are fully searchable, which seems as if everything about you, right down to what you had for breakfast is knowable by an employer. For instance, I picked a name at random "Robert Smith" and searched online, now there was a "Robert Smith" who was a politician and I see all the political donations made to him right down to the occupation and company the donator holds - is this too much information? I think so, I don't think this should be searchable by Google, it should be available in a town hall or something.

Then if I wanted to find Robert's phone number and last known location, again this is find-able using this service. Why? Why does this information have to be available? Background checks, maybe, but right down to your last known current location seems to be a bit much to me. I really have mixed feelings about living totally online, but if you start the ball rolling, how do you stop it? or do you just live with it - which is why I pose the question - do you have the right to be forgotten?

jibbajabba

Do you have the right?
Probably.
Is it technically possible?
Unlikely

ccnxjr

In that specific example , there should be a law.
It's one thing when you publish stuff , of your own accord, then you have the ability to take action .
However, when someone else publishes stuff about you, it's a bit more challenging.
Especially if you're unaware such things have been published, or who has been viewing them.

Also, as more and more of the world gets an online presence, you're more likely to run into a doppelganger.
Someone who probably has a similar name, background, or other characteristic who can be mistaken for you.

Yep, it's a new, challenging problem.
However just because I can't come up with and answer to it myself in about 30 minutes of thinking about it, I don't think it's an unsolvable one.

Maybe the answer is a cultural one?
We should probably be more tolerant of people's past mistakes.
Or not impose our own, personal, ideals & values as the standard whereby we judge another person's character or ability.