The Right to Be Forgotten

The right to be forgotten describes a right in which you have the ability to request deletion of personal data that has been disseminated throughout the internet. Some of the values that are put at tension because of this right are the values of free speech and the values of self preservation on the internet. These values are put to tension because on the hand of those who believe in freedom of speech you can no longer post personal information about someone on the internet without them having the ability to request its deletion. From the other side self preservation on the internet is difficult and the ability to request that information be removed about you may be a reasonable thing to ask, what if someone doxed you, or you posted an inappropriate picture of yourself to the internet by mistake.

The article from stanford review notes a case in which an Argentine pop star had posed for racy pictures when she was young. and later requested that all of this information be removed from yahoo and google search engines. You could see that she obviously regretted ever posting this stuff to the internet and this information may have had future consequences on her. A counter example may be a case in which a murderer wants to have his name removed from all instances about his case on the internet. Do we really want people to have the ability to erase history?

From those on the side for the right to be forgotten they note that it is a lot harder to be forgotten in the age of the internet and that this is missing from current bills of rights. They think that any information about someone belongs to that person and no one else. On the other hand there are those who don’t believe in this right to be forgotten. They note that an individual has the right to freedom of expression with the right to be forgotten. I can no longer make a personal statement about anyone without me being liable to need to remove it. It could be seen as very problematic that no personal information could be on the internet without that user being able to delete it.

Using a defining borders approach we can draw lines to show which scenarios we feel would be considered reasonable to ask to be forgotten or unreasonable to ask to be forgotten. I think that there are scenarios in which it is unreasonable to ask to be forgotten and other scenarios that it is reasonable. If I am a working mom and i accidentally post an unflattering picture to the internet and quickly delete it i might think that it is reasonable to want the right to know that that picture is fully deleted when i have pressed the delete button. Let’s draw a new line. I’m a criminal bank robber but I have changed in jail. I want all the posts about the banks that I robbed in the past to be deleted so that I might be able to get hired on the outside. I think this is less reasonable. Should we give a criminal the right to remove their name from past actions ? What if i am Hitler’s family and I want all posts connecting the Hitler Name to WW2 removed from the internet. This is totally unreasonable and I think this line totally voids the right to be forgotten as a reasonable extension to the rights that a human has. What if i want to forget my past medical record and i am HIV positive. Should doctors not know that I am still HIV positive when next taking blood? There are so many unreasonable extensions of the right to be forgotten that I could absolutely never put my moral backing behind this right.

If I Was to appear before canadian parliament as an expert on technology concerning the right to be forgotten.i would propose the following 3 Policies to the parliament concerning the right to be forgotten.

• As a canadian you have freedom of conscience and thought. If I am free to be conscious, I have the right to my memories as an individual. If i have the right to remember how could we give someone else the right to be forgotten without inherently infringing on someone else’s right to remember. With this being said do not implement such a right as the right to be forgotten.
• The press has the right to disseminate information up to but not including hate speech do we remove this right to make room for the right to be forgotten? Or do we again see the problematic resolution of the right to be forgotten and choose to not implement such a thing.
• Similarly, the last two proposals I wonder do i have the right to forget evidence correlated to my personal information. If i went to canada’s wonderland on friday and murdered someone there do i have the right to remove all proof that i was there? This isn’t really a proposal but a proposal for not going forward with this idea.

I think that the right to be forgotten inherently infringes on multiple existing rights of Canadians. Implementing the right to be forgotten into the Canadian charter would cause many flaws, these flaws directly affect other Canadians preexisting rights and this is why I feel that there is no room for the right to be forgotten in the charter.