Privacy, Publicity, and the Right to Be Forgotten

Many of us will remember the sense of foreboding induced by the simple threat, usually uttered by a teacher: ‘It will go on your permanent record’. This administrative bogeyman exploits our early awareness of the importance of being able to leave some things in the past. While some of the things we do may go on public record at various points in our lives, it used to be possible to comfort ourselves with the thought that these would soon be buried deep in the archives, where most people would not care to look. In the digital age, however, search engines do the digging and can serve up previously long-forgotten results on a simple search of a person's name. This article takes up the question of what kinds of claims we have against information being dug up from our past. Specifically, it focuses on information that is legitimately a matter of public record. When some information has been stored in an archive and has, in principle, been accessible to anyone, what claims, if any, do we have against that information being brought back to light? Many people would find it intrusive for someone to dig through archives and publicize afresh the information they found out about you there, but it is not clear what the basis of such a complaint would be. Moreover, it is this kind of complaint that is provided protection through data-protection provisions colloquially referred to as the right to be forgotten. Such measures are typically framed as privacy protections. While some have argued that we can have privacy rights over information that has been made public,1 I argue that appeals to privacy fail in cases concerning information that is legitimately a matter of public record. Paying attention to the reasons we have to object to the dredging up of outdated information reveals a new category of claims that are distinct from claims to privacy, but serve the same general interest in self-presentation that privacy scholars have long been concerned with. I call these claims against distortion. We can understand such claims as falling under a general principle of reputational control embedded in the historic right of personality. 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over public information to such in the of a of I have argued for a category of claims against that are distinct from claims against privacy and claims against defamation, but serve the same general interest in reputational against in cases where some information that is legitimately a matter of public record is in a that that it is information by to a in where that information is outdated to of provides a for protection for claims against the of public and provides some on to the of of information to distortion. question over this is to to the in things that to be in in that that to the to the article from search results for that the article to on the and that search to the the of the not to be in of claims against the of public information by to of us to the to the it to on the but not accessible a simple search of would that to it out would have to dig While that of may be in it would not be in of the in it be to as to someone to that such information but to is with of and as the to the being to in of the about we can that the of the information in question will matter to our of in the search from this that these the information about the in the of the of the That they that the to a in it to be outdated to from the search results with name. 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