In a world where the Internet is inescapable and many personal, school and work functions are moving online, the issue of privacy has grown in importance. In order to protect human dignity, individual self-worth and well-being, it is imperative that “the right to be forgotten” be a civil right.

The term “right to be forgotten” was first used in the EU court when a Spanish citizen lodged a complaint against Google for not removing search results about his repossessed home.

The court decided that while “individuals [do] have the right… to ask search engines to remove links with personal information about them, this [only] applies where the information is inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive for the purposes of the data processing.”

However, “at the same time, the Court explicitly clarified that the right to be forgotten is not absolute but will always need to be balanced against other fundamental rights, such as the freedom of expression and of the media.”

This clarification helped solidify the notion that the right to be forgotten is and should be a fundamental right enjoyed by citizens. Without these rights and protections meant to respect the choices and well being of the individual, it is doubtful a fair and just society would exist.
In order to ensure privacy and the fulfillment of civil rights, it is imperative that personal information stay personal. Because individual rights are the security of economic, reputational and social welfare, it is vital that particular choices made by the individual stay private.

Pere Castellano said that, “It is human nature for… people to commit mistakes and have regrets. People change, evolve, and mature… the right to be forgotten tries to ensure the privacy and reputation of individuals, avoiding the constant persecution of the past.”

When a particular choice is made, it becomes a defining characteristic of the individual (think back to when you accidentally spilled milk in 4th grade and ended up being “Clumsy Kim” until you graduated from high school). The subconscious evaluation of individuals based on their past hinders society as a whole. As the worth of the individual is undermined, so is their dignity. The right to be forgotten is the only method that can protect the individual.

Similarly, privacy is upheld through knowledgeable and informed consent, neither being possible if the right to be forgotten is excluded as a civil, government-protected right. Franz Werro, a professor of transnational legal studies said that, “Dignity, honor and the right to the respect of one’s private life and to keep certain things private…are…part of [the] fundamental rights of the person.” Without the ability to make rational, autonomous decisions regarding what information will be public, privacy cannot be maintained, thus, consent is a necessary prerequisite.
Ivan Szekely of the Eotvos Karoly Policy Institute said that, “[Without the right to be forgotten] we would be unable to make use of one of the most important elements of our personal informational autonomy, the freedom to decide whether to store or share information about ourselves, to control the fate of our data, and to determine what to share with whom, and for how long.”

A lot of information is gathered about the individual when he or she used the internet. Most often, this happens without their consent and knowledge (an example of this is Facebook using wall posts to determine what kind of advertisements to show). The average citizen does not and cannot consent to this data collection.

Because Internet use is so fundamentally ingrained in everyday life, it is impossible for the individually to circumvent such invasive tactics. The right to be forgotten is necessary in order to provide access to citizens to demand the deletion of their internet activity.This is the only way to maintain privacy and uphold dignity.

Informational property includes daily habits and lifestyle, as well as personal information and facts. If this deeply-insightful informational property is continually allowed to be shown or catalogued by Internet search engines, the loss of privacy, human dignity and individual rights is inevitable.

Omer Tene of Stanford University’s College of Management School of Law observed that, “Every day, millions…of users provide Google with unfettered access to their interests, needs, desires, fears, pleasures and intentions. Counter to conventional wisdom, this information is logged and maintained in a form which may facilitate the identification of specific users for various purposes, including…prosecution by the government or pursuit by private litigants.”

It is impossible to live a dignified life if the right to be forgotten is not instituted into law, allowing citizens to demand the removal of their private information from public search engines. Rational and knowledgeable consent plays an integral role in developing trust between the people and the government.

As DU students, our prospects are very large — a single college mistake should not be the determiner of our future, and for this reason, it is essential that the right to be forgotten becomes a government protected and enforced civil right.