Can your traces be erased from the Internet?

By Lee Ki-joo

Lee Ki-joo

The fast and convenient Internet environment has brought about changes that go beyond making life more convenient.

For example, in order to know someone in the past, it was necessary to talk with that person directly. But nowadays we can learn so much more just by looking through a person’s social media account.

Thanks to the advancement of search engines, you can find comments, photos and videos about a person just by typing his or her name.

Of course, what you did in the past can now remain permanently on the Internet as a scarlet letter. It is no longer surprising that companies look into a person’s social media account when considering employing or promoting him or her.

As a result, there are even digital launderers that erase people’s traces on the Internet.

Against this backdrop, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) made a meaningful ruling last year.

The ECJ accepted a man’s request to erase a link to an article about him that showed up in a Google search result, acknowledging the man’s so-called “right to be forgotten.”

Of course, the ruling obligated Google to erase the link, not the original information under specific circumstances. However, the case reminded people of the need to have a global and social discussion on how to ensure the right to be forgotten.

Lawsuits related to the right to be forgotten have also been filed in Japan. Tokyo District Court recently ordered Google to erase search results of a man’s name because details seemed to be related to crime.

There have been discussions on the right to be forgotten in Korea as well.

Thanks to a well-established information and communications technology infrastructure including high-speed communications network and widespread usage of social media among all age groups, discussion has been very active.

The Korean government has also been quick to respond.

The Korea Communications Commission has formed an advisory panel on the right to be forgotten. The panel is composed of experts in law, business management and IT. The commission has also twice hosted seminars on the right to be forgotten.

A variety of interested parties have put forth a range of opinions on the right to be forgotten.

The range of opinions shows how important it is to build a social consensus on the right to be forgotten.

In particular, it is necessary to find a way to balance the right to be forgotten with other public interests, because of possible conflict between the right to be forgotten and other rights such as the freedom of expression and the right to know.

Also, technical and economic restraints of information and communications services providers, including search engines, should be addressed. In addition, the possibility of the right to be forgotten being misused to erase a public figure’s past crimes should not be overlooked.

It will not be easy to draw a social consensus after considering the many issues involved in the right to be forgotten. But now is the right time to think about ways to enhance one’s right to his or her own information in this world of ever-accumulating data.

The writer is a commissioner at Korea Communications Commission.