Context:
Recently, the Supreme Court of India, announced it will examine the ‘right to be forgotten’ issue regarding digital privacy.
More on the news:
- A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud has stayed a Madras High Court order that directed a law portal to remove a specific verdict. The verdict concerned a person who had been acquitted of rape charges.
Right to be Forgotten:
- It is also referred to as the “Right to erasure” empowers individuals to control the use of their personal data and demand its removal from organizational records.
- It applies in cases when an organisation unlawfully uses an individual’s data without his or her consent or the individual withdraws his or her consent to the data use.
Global status:
- The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union explicitly safeguards this right through Article 17.
- Some countries outside the European Union have adopted similar laws as well. In July 2015, Russia passed a law that allows citizens to delist a link from Russian search engines if it ‘violates Russian laws or if the information is false or has become obsolete.
- Turkey and Serbia have also established their versions of the ‘right to be forgotten’.
Status in India:
- In a 2017 judgment by Justice K.S. Puttaswamy declaring the ‘right to privacy’ as a fundamental right under Article 21, the Supreme Court held that the ‘right to be forgotten’ is an aspect of the ‘right to privacy’. However, there is no explicit mention of it in Indian laws.
- According to Section 43A of the IT Act of 2000, companies that have sensitive personal data but neglect to keep it secure enough to prevent someone from experiencing unjust gain or loss may be required to compensate the harmed party for their losses.
- The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 allow complaints for the removal of personal data gathered without consent from the Internet.
- Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 passed but not implemented yet and it does not explicitly mention the ‘right to be forgotten’.