Over the past weeks during the course the issue of privacy has come up numerous times. How much do we share, who do we share it with, and who can actually access all our information? Obviously, should keep in mind that, on the Internet, nothing is really private. It is great advice and I think most people are really careful with what they share.
But I must admit… I wasn’t when I was 16 and Facebook was the newest ‘hot thing’! Our parents were not familiar enough with the modern social networking platforms to guide us on how to use it and as someone hitting puberty, it was quite cool to post that ‘My math teacher is the worst person in the world’. A couple of years later you realize how silly that was and that such thoughts need to be deleted. The same counts for certain pictures, comments, etc. But in how far can you delete this information? To what extent can everything you have EVER posted on the Internet be FORGOTTEN?
That is where the newest right by the EU comes in: The right to be forgotten. It gives individuals the right that certain links that appear on the Internet but are not relevant any more, may be deleted. Online articles that are harmful and irrelevant have to deleted if the person asks for it. Already 150.000 requests for deletion have been submitted and 3402 actually have been deleted. In the Netherlands, 60% of the requests are granted.
This shows the right was urgently needed! I think this is a very modern solution for a problem that exists and will only occur more often as the people who use the Internet are becoming younger and therefore also, more careless and naive. You don’t want to punish individuals’ careers in their 40’s for something they stupidly did when they were just a kid!
The BBC disagrees. They argue that some of the deleted articles were deleted without any good arguments or facts. Therefore, they announced on the 17th, will they make a public list with all the deleted sources. They find that the process of this right should be adapted, e.g. the people who ask for deletion of search results should not remain anonymous.
What do you think about this right? Do you agree with the BBC or with the EU?
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten#Current_legal_frameworks
http://www.nutech.nl/internet/3906141/bbc-publiceert-lijst-met-google-verwijderde-paginas.html
I think a part of the solution here is not about whether a post is deleted from the internet, but how people react to a post of a 12-year old. Say, for instance, you’re 25, just graduated and looking for a job. In my opinion, it would be ridiculous that you’re not being hired because of a post you’ve written when you were 12. Companies should be able to understand that certain posts aren’t necessarily the opinion of a person after 20 years.
Secondly, I don’t think the people who ask for deletion should be anonymous. Lawsuits are public, at least in some countries, therefore these requests (legal actions) should also be public. After all, you’re responsible for the things you’ve said on the internet, and just like the ‘real life’ it’s nearly impossible to take back your words on the internet. If you make a mistake (for instance a rude of racist comment), you should accept the consequences, it would be unacceptable that one can delete such comments anonymously just for his/her conveniance.