{"id":1111,"date":"2014-08-13T17:03:30","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T17:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2020-08-26T15:17:17","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T22:17:17","slug":"why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why A “Right To Be Forgotten” Is Really Really Bad For Privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Court of Justice has famously ruled that Google must abide by a new \u201cRight To Be Forgotten\u201d and stop showing links to stories on request from the people the stories concern. This is not good for privacy; it\u2019s disastrous. Here\u2019s why.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The \u201cright to be forgotten\u201d in the European Union was presented as a privacy-strengthening law, but is the exact opposite. It\u2019s no more strengthening of privacy than tax laws are strengthening of financial autonomy. When the government can order something to be forgotten, it has given itself the right to change history, to erase embarrassment, and to protect its echelons against a free press.<\/p>\n

But looking from the bright side, isn\u2019t it good that you can have bad, embarrassing, or outright false stories about yourself deleted from human consciousness? Wouldn\u2019t this be a service you\u2019d be grateful for the government providing, standing up for the little guy against the powerful publishers? Wouldn\u2019t you like to be able to erase those bad photos from Facebook, for example?<\/p>\n

To understand why this is bad, we need to first look a little bit closer at what a government is<\/em>.<\/p>\n

One of the primary functions of the modern nation-state government is to settle disputes between its citizens. The idea is to avoid \u201cmight makes right\u201d by, ehm, giving a monopoly on legal violence to one entity \u2013 the government \u2013 which can then outgun every other party in its territory. So it\u2019s not avoiding \u201cmight makes right\u201d at all; it\u2019s just putting all the might and all the guns in a trusted party, a government, and then giving it ability to enforce its judgment in disputes.<\/p>\n

Such disputes between citizens have always been material \u2013 they have concerned transfer of wealth, property, or resources in various ways. But for the first time, an Alice has gone to the government and demanded that a Bob forgets something bad about her.<\/p>\n

The government agreed in this dispute, and by doing so, it gave itself a vastly greater power than determining who owns<\/em> what: it has now taken itself the right to determine who thinks<\/em> what.<\/p>\n

So for the first time ever, a government has given itself the right to determine what somebody may or may not remember, backed by the full gunforce of law enforcement. That\u2019s not good for privacy. That\u2019s disastrous.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A right to be forgotten for somebody else is a right for the government to determine what is and what isn\u2019t in my memory. And yours. That\u2019s terrible.<\/p>\n

Privacy remains your own responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Court of Justice has famously ruled that Google must abide by a new \u201cRight To Be Forgotten\u201d and stop showing links to stories on request from the people the stories concern. This is not good for privacy; it\u2019s disastrous. Here\u2019s why. The \u201cright to be forgotten\u201d in the European Union was presented as … Continue reading “Why A “Right To Be Forgotten” Is Really Really Bad For Privacy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy A "Right To Be Forgotten" Is Really Really Bad For Privacy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The European Court of Justice has famously ruled that Google must abide by a new "Right To Be Forgotten" and stop showing links to stories on request from\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why A "Right To Be Forgotten" Is Really Really Bad For Privacy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The European Court of Justice has famously ruled that Google must abide by a new "Right To Be Forgotten" and stop showing links to stories on request from\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PIA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-13T17:03:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-26T22:17:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ogimage.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rick Falkvinge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@buyvpnservice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rick Falkvinge\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rick Falkvinge\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4\"},\"headline\":\"Why A “Right To Be Forgotten” Is Really Really Bad For Privacy\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-13T17:03:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-26T22:17:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/\"},\"wordCount\":434,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"General Privacy News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/\",\"name\":\"Why A \\\"Right To Be Forgotten\\\" Is Really Really Bad For Privacy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-13T17:03:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-26T22:17:17+00:00\",\"description\":\"The European Court of Justice has famously ruled that Google must abide by a new \\\"Right To Be Forgotten\\\" and stop showing links to stories on request from\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why A “Right To Be Forgotten” Is Really Really Bad For Privacy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"PIA\",\"description\":\"Online privacy news from around the world.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Private Internet Access\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":1200,\"caption\":\"Private Internet Access\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/buyvpnservice\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/piavpn\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UClyJZ47Rizb1xnwuKXDI0_w\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4\",\"name\":\"Rick Falkvinge\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rick Falkvinge\"},\"description\":\"Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. Additionally, he has a tech entrepreneur background and loves good whisky and fast motorcycles.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/falkvinge.net\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/author\/rick\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why A \"Right To Be Forgotten\" Is Really Really Bad For Privacy","description":"The European Court of Justice has famously ruled that Google must abide by a new \"Right To Be Forgotten\" and stop showing links to stories on request from","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why A \"Right To Be Forgotten\" Is Really Really Bad For Privacy","og_description":"The European Court of Justice has famously ruled that Google must abide by a new \"Right To Be Forgotten\" and stop showing links to stories on request from","og_url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/","og_site_name":"PIA","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/","article_published_time":"2014-08-13T17:03:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-08-26T22:17:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ogimage.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Rick Falkvinge","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge","twitter_site":"@buyvpnservice","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rick Falkvinge","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/"},"author":{"name":"Rick Falkvinge","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4"},"headline":"Why A “Right To Be Forgotten” Is Really Really Bad For Privacy","datePublished":"2014-08-13T17:03:30+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-26T22:17:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/"},"wordCount":434,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["General Privacy News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/","name":"Why A \"Right To Be Forgotten\" Is Really Really Bad For Privacy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-08-13T17:03:30+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-26T22:17:17+00:00","description":"The European Court of Justice has famously ruled that Google must abide by a new \"Right To Be Forgotten\" and stop showing links to stories on request from","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/why-a-right-to-be-forgotten-is-really-really-bad-for-privacy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why A “Right To Be Forgotten” Is Really Really Bad For Privacy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/","name":"PIA","description":"Online privacy news from around the world.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Private Internet Access","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/pialogowhitekglogo.png","width":1200,"height":1200,"caption":"Private Internet Access"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/privateinternetaccess\/","https:\/\/x.com\/buyvpnservice","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/piavpn\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UClyJZ47Rizb1xnwuKXDI0_w"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8153559f44e1b6f9738dd6c7d33046a4","name":"Rick Falkvinge","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad30e41b6591c75d90c6002e54553bdd55f419d89a54b72241efa308b84a7f03?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rick Falkvinge"},"description":"Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. Additionally, he has a tech entrepreneur background and loves good whisky and fast motorcycles.","sameAs":["https:\/\/falkvinge.net\/","https:\/\/x.com\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/Falkvinge"],"url":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/author\/rick\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1114,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions\/1114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}