RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN

1. Context

2. What is the Right to be Forgotten?

3. What is the law on the Right to be Forgotten?

• Section 43A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 says that organizations who possess sensitive personal data and fail to maintain appropriate security to safeguard such data, resulting in wrongful loss or wrongful gain to anyone, may be obligated to pay damages to the affected person.
• While, the IT Rules, 2021 do not include this right, they do however, lay down the procedure for filing complaints with the designated Grievance Offitos to have content exposing personal information about a complainant removed from the internet.
• Moreover, on December 11, 2019, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill in the Lok Sabha.
• While the bill is yet to be passed by the parliament, owing to a parliamentary joint committee's suggestion to amend 81 of the 99 sections of the same, clause 20 under chapter V of the draft bill titled, "Rights of Data Principal" mentions the "Right to be Forgotten" as the right to restrict or prevent the continuing disclosure of personal data by a "data fiduciary".

4. Origin of this right

• The Right to be Forgotten gained importance after the 2014 decision of the court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the Google Spain Case.
• The right to be Forgotten has been recognized as a statutory right in the Europen Union under the General data protection Regulation (GDPR).
• It has been upheld by several courts in the United Kingdom, and in Europe.

5. Status in India

• In India, no law specifically provides for the right to be forgotten. However, the Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 recognized this right.
• Information Technology Act, of 2000 provides for safeguarding against certain breaches of data from computer systems.
• It contains provisions to prevent the unauthorized use of computers, computer systems, and data stored therein.

6. Right to Privacy and Right to be Forgotten

• The Right to be Forgotten falls under the purview of an individual's right to privacy, which is governed by the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019.
• In 2017, the Right to Privacy was declared a fundamental right by the Supreme Court in its landmark Puttaswamy case verdict.
• The court said that "the right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution."

7. Challenges

7.1 Conflict with public Record

• The right to be forgotten may get into conflict with matters involving public records.
• For instance, judgments have always been treated as public records and fall within the definition of a public document according to section 74 of the Indian Evidence Act, of 1872.
• The Right to be Forgotten can not be extended to official public records, especially judicial records as that would undermine public faith in the judicial system in the long run.

7.2 Individual vs Society

For Prelims & Mains