Right to be forgotten under GDPR

Introduction 

As we all know that the Right to be Forgotten or the Right to Erasure is deemed to be an essential ingredient of our privacy rights and was highlighted or came into light in the European Union with the 2014 judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union, involving Google. This judgement recognized that the Right to erasure is a fundamental Data Subject Right in the General Data Protection Right (GDPR). 

 

What is the Right to be forgotten? 

The Right to be Forgotten is mentioned under Article 17 (2) of the GDPR where it is stated that “The data subject shall have a right to obtain from the controller the erasure of personal data concerning him or her without undue delay and the controller shall have the obligation to erase personal data without undue delay.” This implies that the controller needs to check the conditions for erasure without undue delay. Apart from this, under Article 19 of the GDPR, the controller is also obliged to inform all the recipients regarding any changes or erasure made to the data and the controller shall also inform the data subject about those recipients/receivers if the data subject requests it. 

 

How does the right to erasure apply?  

  • If the data was collected for a purpose, and such purpose has been accomplished. 
  • In a situation where you have revoked your consent for further processing and the lawful requirement for processing of data is not there. 
  • In a situation where you deny further processing and there is no further legitimate basis for processing.  
  • In a situation of unlawful data processing.  
  • In a situation of processing your data for direct marketing purposes. 
  • In a situation where the data must be erased in compliance with a legal ruling or such obligations. 
  • In a situation where the organization has processed a child’s data to give it to information society services. 

When does the Right to process data supersede the Right to be Forgotten? 

  • When the right to freedom of expression overrides privacy rights. 
  • When the data used is to comply with legal obligation or ruling. 
  • When personal data is being used for performing a task in the public interest. 
  • When data is considered necessary for public health reasons. 
  • When data is being used for legal claims. 

 

The Right to be Forgotten is not an absolute right and is limited in nature with all its conditions applied. However, if one of the above conditions regarding the necessary deletion/erasure of data is fulfilled and satisfied, the data controller shall be obliged under the #gdpr to take requisite and reasonable measures without causing any undue delay.

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Curated by: Prajwala D Dinesh, Ritwik Tiwari, Ayush Sahay

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