What is the ‘right to be forgotten’ (a.k.a. right to ‘erase’) under EU data protection law?
Key points:
EU data protection law provides individuals the right to have personal data erased. The right to erasure is also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’ under GDPR.
Individuals can make a request for erasure verbally or in writing;
Controllers have one month to respond to a request;
The right is not absolute and only applies in certain circumstances;
This right to erase is not the only way EU data protection law forces controllers to consider whether to delete personal data.
What is the right to erase and why is it important?
EU data protection law grants individuals the right to have personal data erased. This is also known as the ‘right to be forgotten’. The right is not absolute and only applies in certain circumstances.
Article 17 of GDPR states
Article 17: Right to erasure (‘right to be forgotten’)
(1) The data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller the erasure of personal data concerning him or…
