EU Report: The 'Right To Be Forgotten' Is Technically Impossible... So Let's Do It Anyway

from the just-forget-it dept

Every few months, it seems, we hear about yet another attempt in Europe to implement the absolutely ridiculous idea of the "right to be forgotten." We wrote about it in 2010, 2011 and again earlier this year. It's a silly idea for a variety of reasons. The general idea is that someone, say, who has committed a crime, but is then rehabilitated / served his time / whatever, deserves a "fresh start" and the stories of the crime and punishment should be erased from publications. Europeans who support this wacky idea argue that it's a form of a privacy right. But that's ridiculous. It has nothing to do with "privacy" at all, as the fact that someone committed and convicted of a crime is a public fact, not private info. Telling people (and publishers) that they can't talk about factual information, or even leave available factual stories written at the time just seems completely offensive to anyone who believes in the basic idea of free speech.

And, of course, there's an even bigger problem. The whole idea isn't just silly and complex, but it's totally impossible. And it's not just me saying that. As Stewart Baker points out, the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) has put out a report making the basic impossibility of a "right to be forgotten" quite clear:
Consider Alice viewing Bob’s personal information on a computer screen, while she is allowed to do so (i.e., before Bob has invoked his right to be forgotten). Alice can take a picture of the screen using a camera, take notes or memorize the information. It is technically impossible to prevent Alice from doing so, or even to recognize that she has obtained a copy of Bob’s personal data.
They seem to make that clear just by the image they chose to put on the cover of the report:
That said... given the very admission that this is impossible, you'd think the recommendation would be (perhaps) to find something a little more productive to work on. But, no, that would be wishful thinking. Instead, despite the admission that the whole endeavor is doomed to be a failure for the simple fact that it's impossible, they still discuss ways that it might be implemented. And their ideas? Well, to double down on the impossible with crazy regulations. Take for example, the following two "recommendations" in the final section, one right after the other:
  • For any reasonable interpretation of the right to be forgotten, a purely technical and comprehensive solution to enforce the right in the open Internet is generally impossible.
  • A possible pragmatic approach to assist with the enforcement of the right to be forgotten is to require search engine operators and sharing services within the EU to filter references to forgotten information stored inside and outside the EU region.
Got that? So it's impossible, but let's regulate the hell out of search engines and tell them what they can't link to. Perhaps if they'd stopped after the point at which they determined it was "impossible" we'd all have been better off.
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Filed Under: enisa, europe, free speech, impossible, privacy, public information, reporting, right to be forgotten


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  • identicon
    Dan Bull, 6 Dec 2012 @ 5:46am

    Enforcing someone's "right to be forgotten" necessarily revokes everyone else's "right to remember", which is patently absurd.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:08am

      Re:

      Those who are awarded the right to be forgotten will be issued a "flashy thing".

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Bengie, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:52am

      Re:

      I also did realize that private search engines are responsible to up-hold other people's rights.

      I have a right , Google better make it so.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 7:32am

        Re: Re:

        What?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 8:08am

        Re: Re:

        Remember the example of the user who saved an image of the screen, or printed out the data ? Has nothing to do with Google or any other search engine. Although surely we can kiss the Internet Archive goodbye.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Tony, 28 Jan 2013 @ 5:17pm

      Response to: Dan Bull on Dec 6th, 2012 @ 5:46am

      The excerpt and many of the comments seem to confuse how rights interact with facts.
      The example given by the European rep also confuses the two.
      Merely because one can take a picture does not reduce any rights in the information.
      I can take a picture of a copyright image. It does not mean I can distribute and hence undermine the copyright without legal consequence.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Kurata, 6 Dec 2012 @ 5:46am

    I can understand them wanting to push such a right anyway though.
    What's with groups being annoying and stuff, if they didn't they would have to handle more heat than if they didn't.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 5:49am

    Who is most likely to want unfortunate stories forgotten, would it be politicians?/s

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 5:50am

    Governments and the powers that stand behind them apparently fear Google a lot.

    CNN: Solving 'the Google problem' key to ensuring the Internet's success by Andrew Keen(the guy who wrote the ridiculous "The Cult of the Amateur")

    Maybe Google should capitalize on this new found power.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    out_of_the_blue, 6 Dec 2012 @ 5:54am

    Yes, "lets regulate the hell out of search engines"!

    First, most important for the fanboy-trolls": I've quoted Mike's original text above: it was HE who wrote "lets", not me.

    Now, this is yet more of Mis-directing Mike's blather. We can definitely prevent search engines from storing tracking data forever -- and no corporation has a right to do so, it's merely an ability. So on the largest front of everyone NOT being tracked ALL the time, that's totally do-able.

    On the narrow area where Minuscule Mike focuces, it SAYS totally is impoossible, but search engines can still be required to do what's possible.

    So there's NO CONTRADICTION, MIKE, you're just blathering again.

    (Going for the rare double-post when blank screen returned.)






    Mike "Streisand Effect" Masnick desperately needs your click. -- Why? -- Don't ask me! He's the one puts this link up often:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
    (IF he's so famous, why does he need to put the link up?)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      silverscarcat (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:05am

      Re: Yes, "lets regulate the hell out of search engines"!

      ootb, stop talking out of your ass.

      WHERE did MIKE say ANYTHING about Search Engines?

      Oh wait, he DIDN'T!

      He was QUOTING part of the article in question that he was discussing...

      And the ARTICLE which was being QUOTED was the ONE who said that!

      Also, WHAT have I said about your STUPID AS FUCKING HELL "sig"?

      You need to play outside so the grownups can talk.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      silverscarcat (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:23am

      Re: Yes, "lets regulate the hell out of search engines"!

      Also, ootb, here's a little tidbit of information for you.

      If you do something stupid in real life, people will forget pretty quickly.

      If you do something stupid online, everyone remembers FOREVER!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:26am

      Re: Yes, "lets regulate the hell out of search engines"!

      I see no compelling reason this should be done.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      DCX2, 6 Dec 2012 @ 8:45am

      Re: Yes, "lets regulate the hell out of search engines"!

      Allow me to rephrase OOTB because, honestly, I agree with the basic sentiment he is attempting to express, in between all that antagonistic garbage.

      Do not let perfect be the enemy of good.

      I, for one, have gone out of my way to keep my real life as disconnected from my Internet life as possible. I occasionally Google myself to make sure it's hard to find me. Having a limited ability to selectively erase bits and pieces can help preserve my anonymity by giving me at least a weak defense against an attempted dox attack.

      Again, this won't be perfect. e.g. Violentacrez would still have been unmasked by Adrian Chen. But IMO, something is better than nothing at all.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        nasch (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 11:30am

        Re: Re: Yes, "lets regulate the hell out of search engines"!

        We can definitely prevent search engines from storing tracking data forever

        What he's talking about is a right to control what a business does with private information about me. The "right to be forgotten" is a right to control what a business does with public information about me. One has serious free speech ramifications and the other doesn't.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 5:55am

    BTW the right to be forgotten I believe is based on how society used to work, if you did something wrong you could move to another area and try again, you could make mistakes and pay for them and move on, and although I find that to be great and would miss it, one has to face reality eventually, every dumb thing you do for now on will be recorded and remembered for a long time, there is only one place where you can make mistakes anonymously and use it to better yourself and that is the anonymous web. But that is not enough people will do dumb things and others will be able to remember for a long time, society will need to develop other skills now and more emotional self-control, it seems impossible but it is not, I am certain others will learn how to see old bad news about others and eventually learn that what is important is how they are now not how they were then.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      blue skies (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:05am

      Re:

      As far as I know it's mostly about the "right to make a mistake". The problem with not forgetting anything, is that your mistakes will haunt you for the rest of your life.
      Even though you have learned from those mistakes.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:33am

        Re: Re:

        Exactly, people won't be able to hide them anymore from others, in an hyper-connected world the chances of everybody knowing about your dumb years are greater than ever before, this will force people to either not be dumb which I doubt it is possible or learn how to live and understand why those dumb acts occur because just throwing judgement over others is fun until it happens to you and with so many laws to break, everybody eventually will be either a criminal or relative of a criminal, everybody will see how dumb others are and nobody will be able to say I am not like them, this may force some new societal perspectives changes.

        If it is good or bad only time will tell.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:42am

          Re: Re: Re:

          All they need to do now is create a memory eraser and help remove it from your brain as well.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 8:38am

          Re: Re: Re:

          The other thing that would be handy would be if they could go to the libraries and peoples' attics and confiscate all the newspapers and magazines that someone wanted their acts expunged from as well, and reprint the things with some nice cat story instead.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:12am

      Re:

      "BTW the right to be forgotten I believe is based on how society used to work, if you did something wrong you could move to another area and try again..."

      You underestimate how quickly news about your misdeeds used to travel - and how distorted they would get along the way. Today, that process just happens in a wider scale and much faster thanks to the Internet. The underlying reality didn't change, though.

      But the base problem here isn't that these news travel far and fast. The base problem is that people don't trust, say, criminals after they commit a crime, even after they've paid for it. That is not something you can regulate with laws. You'd have to magically make people accept to just "forgive and forget".

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:28am

        Re: Re:

        You see, this is a problem because everybody will either have a criminal in their family or have a record at some point in their lifes according to some estimates more than half the population of this world will break the law and get caught by laws that are known or unknown to them at some point.

        You don't need to trust "criminals" specially if they know how to spot a real-criminal and one that was made a criminal by law there is a difference and it is very important.

        And the how to spot criminals will be created by societal norms, like it always has been.

        Also the right to be forgotten appears to be only an European thing and they do make exceptions I doubt that all those countries that enacted laws to have pedophiles listed everywhere forever will give up those laws.

        On the matter of news traveling, well only if you were famous or infamous because if you were nobody, news didn't travel that far from your hometown and you could move about from city to city, so I don't believe you are correct in that respect, people had more chances than they do today, if anybody does a search for a name it will pop up their entire history from anywhere in the world, that couldn't be done in 80's or even the 90's things changed a lot.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:45am

          Re: Re: Re:

          Sorry to burst your bubble.

          Out of my family of four siblings 2 of us (including me) have a criminal record. Neither of which can be found Online.

          Only news worthy crimes make it to the news and therefore online. SO it would usually have to be something pretty big to make it there.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:13am

      Re:

      "society will need to develop other skills now and more emotional self-control, it seems impossible but it is not, I am certain others will learn how to see old bad news about others and eventually learn that what is important is how they are now not how they were then."

      Society will have to learn to forgive? But then who will we wag our fingers at?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    art guerrilla (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:04am

    'right to be forgotten' ? ? ?

    1. sounds like a 'right to re-write his story' to me...

    2. *besides* the technical/practical hurdles, i have NO DOUBT that any such 'laws' etc would be used/abused by the rich / famous / powerful to scrub their seedy his stories from the public record...

    it is ever thus: laws made *purportedly* for the benefit of us li'l peeps are crafted or used by the rich/powerful to our detriment...
    same ole same ole

    art guerrilla
    aka ann archy
    eof

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:33am

      Re: 'right to be forgotten' ? ? ?

      The right to be forgotten is actually an important part of the police/employer relationship. The police would give out a criminal record on request and use that against a job applicant. To prevent petty theft and bar-fights from pushing people down the gutter of "once a criminal, always a criminal" these lesser crimes were removed from the criminal record they delivered to the employer. Now, with digital traces and employers searching facebook for information on potential employees, that safety for people is gone and it is never coming back. I think it was a good system to be honest, but all good things come to an end and trying to enforce it digitally now is sheer unadulterated insanity.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        art guerrilla (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:43am

        Re: Re: 'right to be forgotten' ? ? ?

        except that in today's society, we are ALL 'criminals', according to 'our' (sic/sick) Empire...

        there was an article i saw the other day that estimated that -NO MATTER how much you think you adhere to ALL laws- ANY OF US can be jackedup by the piggies if they decide to go after you...

        on top of that, if The They (tm) turn the Eye of Sauron upon YOU, they WILL find shit (or simply plant it, no biggie) on ANYONE (see: petraeus/allen/et al)...

        *THAT* is the purpose of vacuuming up ALL the info in the world: EVERYONE becomes vulnerable to being screwed over by The State (or more to the point: those who control the secretive apparatus of The State), so you better keep your steenking piehole SHUT, 'citizen'...

        art guerrilla
        aka ann archy
        eof

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 7:08am

          Re: Re: Re: 'right to be forgotten' ? ? ?

          Criminals are those with enemies in high place (I agree that anyone breaks arbitrary laws and that anybody can go to prison for it. The question was how well one hand controlled the other. In Denmark we have the worlds most extensive anti-inhability measures encoded in the laws surrounding the separation of power, which makes enemies in high places several people or criminals themself and thus a harder system to abuse)!
          The laws under the right to be forgotten was a good thing because older history and society was different. It was a shield no matter how you think of it is a vacuum cleaner. Earlier times news was slow to travel and the system worked as a DADT in the employer/employee job-situation and protected employees.
          Today, the dirt is getting laundered a lot more publically and news travel extremely fast. Now, it has become an obsolete principle, but it was a good principle in the olden days at protecting the employees rights.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:49am

        Re: Re: 'right to be forgotten' ? ? ?

        Submitted a tad bit too fast. Right to be forgotten is a question of time. Petty theft and bar-fights are removed from the criminal record the police gave out after a certain period of time (I don't know how long time. I haven't needed to know.). Child molestration and murder is never removed from the criminal record.

        To shoot a bit back at the paranoia going around here, it is likely to be a question of official documents they wanted burried (Newspapers are thus offlimit!). A politician will have his/her life gone through to such a degree by the press that they cannot hide those things anyway. Doesn't make the ideas of altering search results any more reasonable, but it is not a conspiracy to defraud. Rather it is a positive notion they are protecting, but a sick way of even thinking about enforcing.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      nasch (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 11:33am

      Re: 'right to be forgotten' ? ? ?

      2. *besides* the technical/practical hurdles, i have NO DOUBT that any such 'laws' etc would be used/abused by the rich / famous / powerful to scrub their seedy his stories from the public record...

      I'm not sure you can really call it abuse when that is explicitly what the proposal is designed for (though ostensibly not just for the rich and powerful).

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:07am

    This smells like another vector in the war on communication, although it also fits well under the title of the war on reality.

    "The Right To Be Forgotten" does not have the look and feel of an issue people can really get behind and support. It could be renamed something like the anti-shaming right ... ummm, no that falls a bit short. Hmmm lets see now - how about The Right Of Respect. Yeah, because there is clearly a war on respect being waged here. We can not have our leaders' good names being dragged through the streets like some kind of trophy.

    On the other hand, why not just call it "vanity rights", as it will only be used by those who are clearly vain. ..... Oh wait a sec, it would also be used by the propaganda pushing pundits - so it could be referred to as propaganda rights. The right to blatantly lie, change history and generally mislead the public. Yeah, that's what they want.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:17am

    Well, I guess I know how to get rid of all the newspapers I don't like...

    Step 1) Buy a news paper subscription.

    Step 2) Make sure to save all the page of the paper that list crimes committed by individuals.

    Step 3) Wait a few years until some criminals are rehabilitated, and invoke their right to be forgotten.

    Step 4) Submit old news papers as evidence of said Newspaper violating the right to be forgotten.

    Step 5) Watch the Newspapers get sued into oblivion for violating the right to be forgotten of the reformed criminal, after all, I was just being a good citizen submitting evidence of their violations of someone else's rights.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    out_of_the_lube, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:18am

    'forgotten information'

    but how to you keep note of 'forgotten information' if its illegal to remember it so that you can 'filter references to forgotten information stored'?
    btw o_o_t_b, have you lent a book to anybody recently or read a magazine at the dentist, ever?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      PaulT (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:49am

      Re: 'forgotten information'

      That's one of the points, really. Information is never forgotten, it's just suppressed, hidden or taken somewhere outside of mainstream access. That's not possible today.

      There never really was a way for people's past actions to be "forgotten" as such if they were recorded anywhere. All that happened was that the information was only available in certain sources, which were either restricted access (e.g. official records) or obscured (e.g. archived newspapers). So long as most people couldn't access, or had no interest in the work required in finding the information (or the authorities agreed not to take them into account during their actions), they were essentially "forgotten".

      Not so now, when everybody has access to all those records any time they want, and there are no gatekeepers who can control access to the content. Google and other search engines may be the majority method for people to find the information, but it's not possible to actually suppress completely because someone, somewhere will always have the information. Even if it's taken offline from their servers, it will be stored somewhere for people to access. Not only that, but any attempt to aggressively force people to remove said information from their sites will almost certainly lead to the Streisand effect (that is, for the benefit of ootb and his fellow morons, the very act of trying to suppress the info will lead to more people talking about it).

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 7:30am

      Re: 'forgotten information'

      I suppose you could go Pharaoh style and bury the guy that compiled the "forgotten information" with the information itself inside a pyramid.

      The only problem is that you'd have to build a huge pyramid to bury all the people you send to check the notes every time you needed to check if someone illegally remembered something.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    fenixbrood (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:39am

    Other things that where impossible

    Travel beyond speed of sound, invisibility and granting EU nobel peace price.

    Its impossible to stop someone to murder some body else but we still make it illegal. And somehow we have this "right" to not get murdered.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:58am

      Re: Other things that where impossible

      Other things that where impossible ....

      Why yes - how does one force others to forget what has happened - interesting dilemma. I suppose an edict could be read at the town square followed by locking up the opposition in a pillory. But this is the 21st century now isn't it.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 7:08am

      Re: Other things that where impossible

      Yes. This is exactly the same as murder.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    cosmicrat (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 7:03am

    Orwellian

    I read this science fiction book once where, to keep the populace under control, it was illegal to remember where you worked or, after 5:00 pm, what you had done during the day. They administered the amnesia chemically.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 7:18am

    I've heard this one before...

    "And when memory failed and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested."
    1984, Orwell

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 7:30am

    I actually couldn't disagree more on this one. I normally am in total agreement with what I read on this site. Let me explain. At one time, I had a LinkedIn account. I asked for my account to be removed. Later, LinkedIn was hacked. If my account had been deleted, as per my request, my information is not out there right now in the wild. Sure, someone could of read it or memorized it or whatever. That's not the concern here. The concern is when I instruct a company to delete my information, I expect it not to just be made invisible, I expect it to be deleted. I believe this is what's at issue here. Once it is out there, sure there are caches here and there, but that is of the information I chose to make public. Internet companies often collect more information than what is made public through the process of setting up an account. We have the option on Facebook for what to actually share and who to share it with, yet on the backend, there is much more information there. I should be able to ask for my information to be removed in these circumstances. I opted in, why can't I opt back out?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      PaulT (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 8:01am

      Re:

      So, you got LinkedIn to remove your private information from their own servers. Well done, I suppose, but that's hardly relevant here to the matter at hand.

      First of all, you seem to be confusing two issues. One is privacy concerning non-public data that you gave LinkedIn/Facebook when you signed up for an account. That's not what the article is discussing, and should already be addressed by EU data protection laws (or whatever the equivalent is in your country).

      The second set of data that *is* relevant to the article is the information you chose to make public. Now, assuming you used LinkedIn for professional purposes as most people do, whatever information you put up there publicly (education, employment, etc.) was most likely available elsewhere to begin with. But, if there wasn't, the removal from LinkedIn wouldn't necessarily have removed that information from the public web. Apart from versions stored on LinkedIn's backup servers or other databases, you have caches, web crawlers, site scrapers and other sources. Employment agencies may well have downloaded your data to use in their own internal systems if you indicated that you were interested in employment. Removing from LinkedIn's current incarnation wouldn't have removed the data from there.

      On top of that, you have to understand the public interest angle. An online resume isn't necessarily something that a lot of people would take copies of. However, if you had a news story written about you, a notice of some criminal activity, or even something particularly embarrassing that was taken of you at a party - well, more copies of that would exist. It will have been shared, linked, reported on blogs, reported in the press, archived and so on. Taking the story off Google's index may make it a little harder to find, but it would be online somewhere. It would be impossible to ensure that every copy was removed, and impossible to ensure that the story wouldn't spread again were interest taken (even if said interest was merely your own attempts to get it removed).

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 9:40am

        Re: Re:

        Sorry to burst your bubble, but Techdirt has no idea what the right to be forgotten is about. It IS about having private companies delete your info. I don't know where Techdirt got the idea that this was about a law to censor the press - I guess the politicians working on this law brought up the topic of the press in their discussions, and Techdirt extrapolated some conspiracy theories from there, as they usually do.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          nasch (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 12:46pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          Sorry to burst your bubble, but Techdirt has no idea what the right to be forgotten is about. It IS about having private companies delete your info.

          I think you may be right: "In particular, data subjects should have the right that their personal data are erased and no longer processed, where the data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which the data are collected or otherwise processed, where data subjects have withdrawn their consent for processing or where they object to the processing of personal data concerning them or where the processing of their personal data otherwise does not comply with this Regulation."

          That sounds much more like a social network situation than a newspaper story. It will be important to clearly define what is meant by "personal data" though if this moves forward. Otherwise it will be ripe for abuse.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          PaulT (profile), 7 Dec 2012 @ 2:08am

          Re: Re: Re:

          "It IS about having private companies delete your info. I don't know where Techdirt got the idea that this was about a law to censor the press"

          Is it possible for you to bring up a point without acting like an asshole and attacking people? That might help conversations somewhat.

          You seem to be attacking me for an interpretation of the "right" that I don't have, based on things other people have said. Would you mind telling me where you get the idea that I didn't think that private companies were involved or that this somehow relates directly to the press other than my quick mention of it above in 4 paragraphs of text?

          If you feel I'm still wrong, please explain without being an obnoxious twat and cite sources for where you're getting your interpretation from. Then we can discuss it. But please, address my stated opinion, not a nebulous "Techdirt" option that I don't share.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 10:20am

        Re: Re:

        I wasn't referring to news articles or google indexes or even caches of pages. I'm saying if I ask a company I do business with to delete my account, my account should be deleted.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          PaulT (profile), 7 Dec 2012 @ 2:23am

          Re: Re: Re:

          "I'm saying if I ask a company I do business with to delete my account, my account should be deleted."

          Indeed. If you read my response, I explained that there's 2 separate points there. I'll try again more succinctly:

          You can definitely make sure that private information is removed from their servers. You cannot guarantee that information that has been made public is removed, since it may have been copied, cached and otherwise distributed by external parties that have nothing to do with the originating site. The former situation is not what the "right to be forgotten" addresses, and it should already be covered by data protection laws. The "right" under discussion only covers publicly visible information. Therefore, while true and noble, your response really has nothing to do with the article you're commenting on.

          Is that clear?

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Gwiz (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 8:10am

      Re:

      No offense intended here and I sympathize with your situation, but you really only have yourself to blame.

      LinkedIn's Privacy Policy states that they can and may retain any information after you close your account. Now it's possible that the policy was different when you signed up, but the fact remains that you did agree to it when you started using LinkedIn.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 9:42am

        Re: Re:

        And that's why we need the 'right to be forgotten'. Such clauses in Privacy Policies need to be over-ruled by the law, to protect the public. Pretty much all websites have such clauses, it's not like you can get the same services from another company or website who will respect your privacy. You either sacrifice your privacy, or you live without the web. That's not right and that's why the government needs to step in (as it often does for the public interest).

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Gwiz (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 12:03pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          And that's why we need the 'right to be forgotten'.

          I disagree. I don't think we need it.

          Such clauses in Privacy Policies need to be over-ruled by the law, to protect the public.

          Umm. Privacy Policies are law. It's a contract. The public, as you say, also needs to be aware of what they agreeing to. Just because you didn't read it, doesn't mean it isn't binding.

          Pretty much all websites have such clauses, it's not like you can get the same services from another company or website who will respect your privacy.

          Yes, they do have such clauses. It's why I rarely give any website my personal info. You didn't have to use LinkedIn, no one forced you to.

          You either sacrifice your privacy, or you live without the web.

          That is completely not true. I use the web all the time and rarely give my info out.

          Laws won't fix gullible people. This is really about personal responsibility. Don't want your info out, don't put it out there.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 12:10pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          No you don't what you should have done it is to encrypt all the data and get a contract saying that you will furnish a service provider with a public key that works to decode the data and at anytime you want you could revoke that key, also in the contract it should say you don't allow your own data to be copied in non-unencrypted form.

          Then you have all the legal tools to compel any company to comply with your wishes.

          Why make new laws when you already have perfectly good working ones?

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 7:34am

    It's criminal to have a good memory. Got it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    bshock, 6 Dec 2012 @ 8:09am

    Same old, same old

    It seems like when the solution to a problem these days involves regulating search engines, the whole point of the discussion from the start was to regulate search engines.

    And even if that wasn't a hidden agenda, it will most probably become the practical agenda.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Rikuo (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 8:21am

    So...Google may end up being told to delete searches for certain data. This data has to be forgotten...thing is, Google will have to be told about it somehow, so how is it forgotten?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 6 Dec 2012 @ 9:17am

      Re:

      Exactly. The only way Google knows what to filter is to have a list... which means that somebody needs to keep track.

      Kind of a Big Brother approach, innit? Everybody will forget... except us!

      Seems like somebody is saying "privacy" when what they really mean is "control".

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 10:13am

    Laws of nature

    It's already one of the laws of nature to forget everything sooner or later.
    Don't believe me? Try remembering that thing...you know that thing about that guy you saw on the news...or was it on the internet.No It was on the news.Channel 6 I think, but maybe it was on 8.Anyway it was about this guy who was supposed to...or did do this thing that was really stupid or dumb or something...any way ahhh...it was a thing that ahh...oh shit!...now I forgot!But you remember what I talking about,right?

    We don't need no stinking laws about forgetting stuff...or whatever it was...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mike Shore, 6 Dec 2012 @ 11:34am

    1984

    Get Winston Smith on the case, he's pretty good at rewriting history.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2012 @ 1:03pm

    Google is not the problem--it's what people are DOING with what they find.

    I work at a travel agency, and one of my clients booked a trip to Canada. He was refused entry because he had a DUI arrest several years ago. Now, I don't condone drunk driving, but really Canada?

    Remember that guy who lost his job when it was discovered that he had been busted for trying to do a load of laundry with a fake dime 50 years ago? http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120905/00533920276/big-banks-finally-punishing-employees-fraud-li ke-call-center-guy-who-used-fake-dime-50-years-ago.shtml

    Instead of trying to mandate forgetting, how about setting limits on what we can do with what is remembered?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    F!, 6 Dec 2012 @ 6:05pm

    please forget about me

    Like the AC above, I too tend to agree with the stance TechDirt takes on most issues they address. This one I believe they have completely wrong end of the stick.

    I'll go so far to agree that search engines should not (and could not, without destroying both their business model AND their usefulness) be required to remove any information whatsoever. The same goes with media publications - newspapers, magazines, etc. have a duty to retain all past news releases in perpetuity. They are the de facto public record, after all.

    On the other hand, private companies such as social networking sites, shopping sites, and other sites (blogs too) that allow or require 'membership' profiles to be created should also be required to provide a 'delete profile' button that completely and permanently deletes all information the website has pertaining to that individual. A 'hide profile' button would be a nice option too, but there is absolutely no valid reason not to provide an individual the ability to be completely removed from a particular database - including the fact that they ever even had a profile.

    In regards to privacy, this deserves to be right up there with 'do not track' and anti-spam laws. We all need more privacy than is currently provided online, and I believe 'the right to be forgotten' is one of the key tools we can use to protect individuals' privacy.

    It would appear Masnick - and subsequently, the vast majority of commenters here - missed the spirit behind 'the right to be forgotten.' Obviously the law as proposed goes way overboard in what it requires. This is a complex problem that is in need of serious discussion, not a knee-jerk outright rejection.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    btrussell (profile), 8 Dec 2012 @ 1:11am

    "The general idea is that someone, say, who has committed a crime, but is then rehabilitated / served his time / whatever, deserves a "fresh start" and the stories of the crime and punishment should be erased from publications."

    Now we know what is happening to the newspaper industry.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    just a visitor, 4 Jan 2013 @ 12:44pm

    you are comparing apples and oranges

    While I share certain doubts about 'right to be forgotten' idea, it seems that article is already a mix up. Yes, criminal past is a fact and cannot be erased (or at least not quickly and not completely), but rtbf is really about privacy of the people who may wish their own data and content to be removed from public view. It's a matter of consent. Once given, with the right to be revoked. Think about it that way. Think about some stupid picture that 17-years old Jimmy put on his facebook page and which 27-years old James, now lawyer / banker / journalist / politician wants removed.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    John welk, 16 Mar 2013 @ 1:59pm

    This Website is really dirt!

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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