Question: The Right to be Forgotten - a case for privacy as a human right Collapse The case of Henri vs Google and the invocation of
The Right to be Forgotten - a case for privacy as a human right
Collapse
The case of Henri vs Google and the invocation of The Right to be Forgotten is definitely interesting, and something I feel can be solved through the operative questions presented by all the various theories we've been presented with inSpinello. But first a slight personal note: having worked for companies that operate in the EU, I have facilitated "Right to be Forgetten" requests (not at Google), and in each case the action was proceduralized in such a way that it imposed no real load on the company to process them - just an email to a monitored account and a script to run that removes database entries, in most cases. So any claim of a "burden" being borne on the part of the company to process these requests is kind of rich.
I highly sympathize with Henri's circumstances, and I definitely think that a right to be forgotten should be part of one's own human rights. Allow me to give a Utilitarian perspective first, since that tends toward the simplest interpretation, in that it doesn't have a lot of nuance. So, what gives the most net expectable utility for all affected parties? Obviously on the face of it, Henri benefits since he is the one seeking to invoke the Right, and because he is directly harmed by the existence of these false accusations about him. Does Google stand to gain in any way for removing the false information? I would argue that anything Google does is in the interest of selling ads, so in that way maybe not, but what about its AI aspirations? I would argue that having the most groomed, well-structured and true data available would be in Google's best interests for its AI training dataset, particularly if Google wishes to avoid litigation - so Google could stand to gain by doing the good-faith action of removing links to false information. Now, what about outside parties to this discussion - what utility do they stand to gain through the removal of false information about Henri? Well, I would argue that a person might be led astray by the false accusations about Henri, and given the nature of that false accusation, it could lead to some terrible misunderstandings. Along with lost opportunities both for Henri and for those who would potentially seek to work with Henri in the future, it could even lead to dangerous misunderstandings should someone who feels personally about the case be led toward the wrong conclusion by that information in the future.
Would anyone see other cases from the operative questions we've seen as to how the Right to be Forgotten could be seen as a basic human right in the modern age? Surely the dissemination of false accusations could ruin a person's life, and I would argue that the classic question of "who does it harm?" is an important consideration here. I would also be curious to hear a counterexample to my perspective here.
Step by Step Solution
There are 3 Steps involved in it
Get step-by-step solutions from verified subject matter experts
