Right to be Forgotten: A Facet of Right to Privacy
Recently the Supreme Court has recognized the ‘right to be forgotten’ and said that it is included in the ‘right to privacy’.
- The Supreme Court has directed its registry to remove information related to certain couples from search engines and the Internet.
- The couple is facing marital discord. According to the court, this information is causing embarrassment and social stigma to the women concerned. It also violates their privacy.
- The petitioner had called the ‘right to be forgotten’, and the ‘right of erasure’ information an integral part of the ‘right to privacy’.
- It may be noted that the ‘right to privacy’ was recognized as a fundamental right by the Supreme Court in Puttaswamy vs. Union of India (2017). The decision expands the scope of the right to privacy and the ‘right to be forgotten’.
- The ‘right to be forgotten’ gives individuals the right to have their personal information removed from the Internet, websites or any other public platform under special circumstances.
- The current data protection regime in India under the Information Technology Act-2000 does not legitimize the ‘right to be forgotten’. But the concept has been included in the data protection bill under consideration.
- The ‘right to be forgotten’ entails striking a delicate balance between the right to privacy and the right to information in the larger public interest or for the legal needs of the state.
Source – The Hindu
