Right to Be Forgotten
Etymology
Rooted in European privacy tradition, the concept crystallized in a 2014 Court of Justice ruling requiring Google to delist certain results about a Spanish citizen, and was written into the GDPR that took effect in 2018. It responds to a new problem: the internet’s refusal to let the past fade. Critics note its tension with free expression and the historical record.
noun phrase · /ryt too bee fer-GOT-uhn/
A legal right to have outdated or harmful personal information removed from search results and records.
What it names
An attempt to restore forgetting in a system that remembers everything by default.
Example
Citing the right to be forgotten, she petitioned to delist a decade-old article about a debt she had long since paid.
Related idea
The right to be forgotten is a legal counterweight to your digital footprint, aiming to give people some control over the trail they leave.