The Right To Be Forgotten
By Darity Wesley
“I also thought that privacy was something we were granted in the Constitution. I have learned in fact that the word privacy does not appear in the Constitution.” ~ Bill Maher
Privacy as an issue is not new. It has morphed over the millennia as society has changed. In ancient cultures, the ability to run off from the tribe, to hide out in a cave and not participate was considered “privacy”. In the foundational governing documents on which most of the world is based, including in the U.S. Constitution, there are no explicit provisions of any right to privacy. Privacy issues have become topics of the times that have evolved into societal customs.
As we moved into the Industrial Age, a new concept was raised in an 1890 Harvard Law Review article written by Louis D. Brandies, who served on the U. S. Supreme Court from 1916-1939, and his Boston law partner Samuel D. Warren. The article, which was apparently a response to newspaper reports published regarding the behavior of Warren’s wife in social settings, defined privacy as “the right to be left alone”. In the late 20th century, privacy was all about protecting your personal information from becoming public. In the first decade of the 21st century, the hot button of privacy was being vigilant in making sure your personally identifiable information wasn’t being shared without your permission. Now privacy is about control in addition to security. What information you reveal, to whom and for what reasons are your choice. And the future of privacy is beckoning- it is the right to be forgotten.
All of that information you chose to reveal about yourself over the last few years has been systematically collated, stored and analyzed to be used to target products and services that may be of interest to you. Let’s say you have a pet dog and go to the vet for grooming services. When you filled out your new patient form, you gave them your contact information. You might receive email and text message reminders quarterly that it is time for a visit. Included in this email may be a request with a link to post a review of the vet or recommend her to a friend. Now let’s imagine that you had to move out of town and give away your dog. The last thing you want to be reminded of is your pet so you contact the vet office and ask them to remove your contact information. In business, this is called withdrawing your permission to keep your personal data.
Here’s the sticky part of this simple request- companies in the United States do not have to recognize your right to be deleted. They may choose to, but it is not required. In the European Union, there is a data protection directive through which people generally have the right to withdraw their permission to store personal data.
Though the above example is pretty innocent, think of all of the data that many of our children and us have openly shared during the boom of the social networking generation. It looks to your Privacy Gurus® that the next wave of privacy discussions, customs and laws will address this right to be forgotten. As a business, it is a good idea to incorporate a process for the deletion of personal information into your Privacy Policy (which we would be happy to help you with).
The best defense you have against having your personal data stored when it is no longer pertinent to your life is to stay aware and alert of where you offer it and for what reasons. Make sure you read Privacy Policies of companies you do business with and find out how to withdraw permission of the use of your personal data and if there is no procedure to do that, send a request, but then be prepared to persevere and document all communications. It may take awhile to accomplish and it can be done. Conscious businesses, those that want to do business with integrity, will take care of deleting your personal information when you wish.
No matter the era, privacy still remains about staying aware and alert.
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