In our last installment in this series on privacy, we touched upon this idea of data access control in the age of the Internet of Things but the European Union’s recent ruling on the ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ legislation is making media headlines due to the challenges in implementation and enforcement.

What is the Right to Be Forgotten? The RTBF is a concept developed by the EU giving an individual the right to determine how his/her life should develop in an autonomous way without being perpetually stigmatized by actions performed in the past which are deemed irrelevant or outdated.

Although some people are keen to the EU’s concept of the Right to Be Forgotten, others are concerned about whether creating a right to be forgotten would decrease the quality of the internet through censorship and a rewriting of history. Europeans as well as other nations would be affected in the sense that searches on companies and individuals will present a different finding in different parts of the world. Additionally, the EU is now noting that enforcement of the right to be forgotten should be global – specifically beyond the EU jurisdictional borders. This presents a major challenge in data management versus legal authority at an international level.