I believe that people do have the right to be forgotten because there is a lot of negative, inaccurate, and outdated information stored on the web that gets mixed in with the significant ones and it can lead to misinformation on what or who gets searched. There is also the issue that some acts that may have been committed in a naïve, ignorant, or childish period in someone’s life has the possibility to be dredged up again. Although time had passed and the situation became insignificant in a person’s life, if someone looks enough, the situation can come to light once again and unnecessarily affect a their life negatively.
The “right to be forgotten” does not clash with our first amendment rights, in fact, I believe they go “hand-in-hand.” The reason why is because it should one someone’s liberty to withhold their own personal information, just like it is one’s liberty to say whatever they feel they want to share. For example, if Person A says something incorrect about Person B, Person B has the right to correct Person A and change what they previously thought. That idea is trickier online because one does not exactly know what is being put out there until it directly affects them. The “right to be forgotten” protects that idea.
Digital identity is the information that can be found about you based on your browsing habits and interactions. In other words, it is like a profile of who a person is bases on what that person searches. It also includes the devices that that user accesses. Whenth person’s information is accessed by other sites, it is used to suggest advertisements and redirects for the user. Other organizations are able to figure out who you are and your interests.
