Tag Archives: right to be forgotten

I believe that people do have the right to be forgotten because there is a lot of negative, inaccurate, and outdated information stored on the web that gets mixed in with the significant ones and it can lead to misinformation on what or who gets searched.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.

I believe people have a “right to be forgotten”, a person should be able to remove any information about them. Any information on the web that they consider too personal to be on there, should be taken down. I would like to think we live in a world that is fair and contains justice, but this is not always true. Every bit of information we put out, is memorized and stored by the internet. I do not believe the “right to be forgotten” clashes with our 1st amendment. I say this because the right to privacy in my opinion, does not conflict with free speech. If anything the “right to be forgotten”, would be an example of expressing free speech in the U.S. Since the 1st amendment involves having the right to have your own voice, how should internet privacy be any different? It should not be different at all, freedom to removal of personal data should be permanent. People should be able to consent to whether or not they want information about them open to the world.

Digital identity is a term used to describe an internet profile, or a collection of your personal data that forms an identity on the web. Tracker sites follow all of your personal data, and together they give a clear picture of who you are. A profile based on either a birth date, relationship status, financial status, or interests. These tracker sites basically control your digital identity. Everyday, everyone on the web is under control by tracker sites. Also I believe the government is behind the scenes, watching our every move on the internet.