Right To Be Forgotten

In News

Recently, Delhi High Court has ordered the removal of one of its verdicts from the search engine Google in an important order on the ‘Right to be forgotten and ‘Right to be left alone.

Major Highlights 

• The judgment was related to acquittal given in a drug case involving a US citizen of Indian origin.
• Justice Prathiba M Singh highlighted that the ‘Right to privacy’ includes ‘Right to be forgotten and ‘Right to be left alone’ while asking a website — Indian Kanoon — to remove the high court verdict link given in a Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act case so that the same can’t be accessed by Google and Yahoo search engines.

Right to Forgotten  

• The right to be forgotten empowers individuals to ask organisations to delete their data. 
• It is provided by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a law passed by the 28-member bloc in 2018.
• Under the right to be forgotten, users can de-link, limit, delete or correct the disclosure of their personal information held by the data fiduciaries. 
• The right to be forgotten appears in Recitals 65 and 66 and in Article 17 of the regulation, which states:
  • The data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller the erasure of personal data concerning him or her without undue delay and the controller shall have the obligation to erase personal data without undue delay” (if one of several conditions applies)
  • After a search engine company like Google gets requests under the privacy law to get information deleted, it first reviews and then removes links on country-specific sites within the European Union.
    • According to the New York Times, Google has so far received more than 8.45 lakh requests to take down 33 lakh internet links, and 45% of the latter have been delisted.

Significance of Right to be Forgotten

• Protect autonomy and right to privacy of an individual.
• It provides protection to the individual’s reputation.
• Give protection to women’s interests on the internet, limiting harassment, threats and assault.

 Right to Forgotten in the context of India 

• The B.N Srikrishna Committee report has laid significant emphasis on obtaining the consent of an individual to process and use personal data.
• The committee said consent must be “informed”, “specific” and “clear”, and needs to be capable of being withdrawn as easily as it was given. 
• India currently has no legal statute that guarantees an individual the right to be forgotten. However, there are some provisions in India’s draft Data Protection Bill that offer victims legal recourse but the proposed bill does not provide the right to erasure.
• Section 27 of the bill has listed three scenarios in which an individual will have the “right to restrict or prevent continuing disclosure of personal data” or the right to be forgotten, in a sense.
  •  There are three reasons under which a user can seek the erasure of data.
    •  The data collected 
      • Has served the purpose for which it was collected or is no longer necessary for the purpose
      •  Was made with the consent of the data principal (the entity which collects data) under section 11 and such consent has since been withdrawn
      •  Was made contrary to the provisions of this Act or any other law for the time being in force.
      • This is similar to the GDPR law enacted in Europe

Issues Relating to Right to be Forgotten in the context of India 

• Matters of individual data protection are currently seen through the lens of the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution. 
• There are two legal precedents on this issue:
  • First, the Karnataka High Court ordered the removal of personal details from the judgment, while referring to the “right to be forgotten” in sensitive cases involving women in general. 
  • Second, the Gujarat High Court rejected the request for “permanent restraint (on) free public exhibition of the judgment and order”.  
  • These two cases present a glimpse into the legal challenges the proposed law may face, in case it clears parliamentary procedure. 
• The biggest challenge in implementing this right is the trade-off between defamation and freedom of expression. 
  • The right to be forgotten comes within the purview of the right to privacy, which would be at odds with Article 19(1)(a) — freedom of speech and expression,” 

Way Forward 

• There should be a balance between the right to privacy and protection of personal data (as covered under Article 21 of the Indian constitution) and the freedom of information of internet users (under Article 19).
• The data protection authority would need a big workforce, and it must be ensured this agency receives sufficient resources. 

Source: TOI