Human Rights and the Right to Be Forgotten in the Age of New Information Technologies

This paper sheds light on one of the most important challenges posed by internet and web 2.0 to the privacy and data protection right. The fact that the internet records everything and forgets nothing, is inconsistent with the fragility of human memory. For this reason, a debate about the need to regulate the ‘right to be forgotten’ that builds on the rights of the personality, consisting several elements such as the right to privacy, data protection, and dignity has emerged in Europe.
This right which finds its rationale in the protection of privacy gives individuals the possibility to remove information about them from the Internet. Moreover, the right to be forgotten could become incompatible with other traditionally protected rights such as freedom of expression and access to information.
This paper explains the history of the recognition of the right to be forgotten which has been defined basically by Data Protection Agencies and studies a new European framework for data protection.