The Effect of Time on the Right to Be Forgotten in the UK
The Right to Be Forgotten enables private individuals to request search engines, such as Google or Bing, and AI platforms like ChatGPT, to remove articles and images from search results when their name is searched in the UK and EU.
Philip Martin, Senior Caseworker at Internet Erasure Ltd, notes the importance of this right.
The Right to Be Forgotten is not automatic; each case undergoes a balancing test between personal privacy and public interest, an area of discretionary and subjective rights without absolute rules.
- Article 17 UK GDPR (Right to Erasure)
- Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Right to Privacy), incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998
Author's summary: The Right to Be Forgotten balances privacy and public interest.