The right to be forgotten, also known as the right to erasure, is a fundamental aspect of individual privacy protection. It allows individuals to request the removal of their personal data from online platforms, search engines, and other databases. This right is particularly important in the digital age, where information can be easily accessed and shared. By exercising the right to be forgotten, individuals can have more control over their personal information and its visibility to others. This can be especially crucial in cases where outdated, irrelevant, or inaccurate information about an individual is being perpetuated online, potentially causing harm or embarrassment. The right to be forgotten empowers individuals to manage their online reputation and protect their privacy by ensuring that they have the ability to remove or update personal data that is no longer relevant or necessary.
An analogy to understand the right to be forgotten is like having the ability to clean up your digital footprint. Just as we tidy up our physical spaces to maintain a sense of privacy and control over our personal belongings, the right to be forgotten allows individuals to tidy up their online presence. It’s like being able to remove old, outdated items from a public library that are no longer relevant or accurate, ensuring that only the most current and pertinent information is available for others to access. This way, individuals can have a say in how they are represented online, just as they would in their physical lives.
Please note that the provided answer is a brief overview; for a comprehensive exploration of privacy, privacy-enhancing technologies, and privacy engineering, as well as the innovative contributions from our students at Carnegie Mellon’s Privacy Engineering program, we highly encourage you to delve into our in-depth articles available through our homepage at https://privacy-engineering-cmu.github.io/.
Author: My name is Aman Priyanshu, you can check out my website for more details or check out my other socials: LinkedIn and Twitter