Right to be forgotten

The right to be forgotten (RTBF^[1]) is the right to have private information about a person be removed from Internet searches and other directories in some circumstances. The issue has arisen from desires of individuals to "determine the development of their life in an autonomous way, without being perpetually or periodically stigmatized as a consequence of a specific action performed in the past".^[2]: 231 The right entitles a person to have data about them deleted so that it can no longer be discovered by third parties, particularly through search engines.^[3]: 121

Those who favor a right to be forgotten cite its necessity due to issues such as revenge porn sites and references to past petty crimes appearing in search engine listings for a person's name. The main concern is for the potentially undue influence that such results may exert upon a person's online reputation indefinitely if not removed.^[4]

Those who oppose the right worry about its effect on the right to freedom of expression and whether creating a right to be forgotten would result in a decreased quality of the Internet, censorship, and the rewriting of history.^[5]

The right to be forgotten is distinct from the right to privacy. The right to privacy constitutes information that is not known publicly, whereas the right to be forgotten involves revoking public access to information that was known publicly at a certain time.^{[3]: 122 [6]}