Scholarly record

RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN IN LIGHT OF REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL OF 27 APRIL 2016 ON THE PROTECTION OF NATURAL PERSONS WITH REGARD TO THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA AND ON THE FREE MOVEMENT OF SUCH DATA, AND REPEALI

M. Magdziarczyk

Abstract

Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (hereinafter: GDPR) ratified “the right to be forgotten.” The EU legislator has given data subjects a tool that allows to control the processing of personal data, while at the same time it protects their right to privacy. This tool is the right to demand from the personal data controller immediate erasure of the personal data, in the event of occurrence of circumstances referred to in Article 17(1) of the GDPR and lack of negative premises referred to in Article 17(3) of this regulation. The subject of considerations of the article is primarily the content and nature of the right to “be forgotten,” the criteria determining the possibility of exercising it as well as the obligations it creates for the controllers of personal data. The question of restrictions on the “right to be forgotten” is also relevant here. While it is impossible to say that the “right to be forgotten” does not have a significant role, even if only in the context of natural persons’ exercising the right to privacy protection, its interaction with the right to freedom of speech or the right to information should be noted. This raises the question of criteria that allow a fair balance to be found between the right to privacy and the right to information or the right to freedom of speech. It seems that the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union may be helpful in formulating such criteria. Another issue of attention is that of the real effectiveness of the “right to be forgotten” and, in other words, the ability to implement and exercise it in a situation of constant and dynamic technological development, especially in relation to the Internet, which implies a constant transformation of the personal data processing environment. One of the paramount objectives of the “right to be forgotten” is to enable data subjects to erase their personal data from the Internet, which, firstly, is accessible to all and, secondly, enables its users to disseminate information easily.

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