NEED HELP

Using the internet for background checks or for gathering information about a specific target for the purposes of conducting a penetration test can be extremely useful. However, it does present some legal and ethical concerns as well. For example, credit and criminal record information have certain restrictions under the Fair Credit Reporting Act which may expose a company to legal consequences for misusing certain protected information. Additionally, there is information that is available on the internet that may be inaccurate or outdated. For example, an arrest or conviction once reported in the news may have subsequently been expunged or overturned on appeal, without a follow-up story clarifying the outcome. Moreover, there may be adverse information that is simply false that has been published to the internet in blogs or other forms by people holding a grudge as a result of some personal dispute.

In the European Union, there is such concern for the misuse of adverse information, particularly in light of the internet's permanence, that people have a "right to be forgotten" that allows an individual to request that a URL be removed from search engine results if it leads to information that is inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed and in the light of the time that has elapsed. This does not actually remove the original source but it allows the individual to block qualifying information from appearing in search results.

What sort of problems do you think could occur if you rely on the Internet to find adverse information about a person? Legal issues aside, is it useful to have access adverse information that has been officially wiped from the public record? If so, does that usefulness outweigh any potential harm that having that information could provide? Should adverse information that appears on the internet be permanent? Do you think the U.S. should adopt a "right to be forgotten"?