The Right to Be Forgotten, the Privilege to Be Remembered

[Commentary] What does it mean to be “forgotten”? So many people are, whether they have a right to it or not. But being easily linked, forever, to certain search engine results -- is that the opposite of being forgotten? Is that being “remembered”? Privacy scholars Woodrow Hartzog and Evan Selinger have written about information obscurity as “a protective state that can further a number of goals, such as autonomy, self-fulfillment, socialization, and relative freedom from the abuse of power.”

Can we find the balance that allows for both obscurity and preservation -- even proclamation -- of the past? Do we want to be identified, and remembered? That depends: By whom, and for what purpose? The European Union decision on delisting gives people some level of control over the information that can be easily found about them. Forgetting, and remembering, are about a lot more.

[Irina Raicu, is the Director of the Internet Ethics Program at Santa Clara University]