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Do you consider the right to be forgotten a human right? Why or why not? (lemmy.wtf)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I was watching a Joe Scott video about the Somerton Man, and at one point he mentions it's believed he just wanted to be forgotten.

I've met a lot of people who are like this. They feel too dysphoric about their life and are eager to see the day when their families all pass away or have memory loss so that the worst parts of their life aren't in other peoples' heads anymore. It's sad.

There are a lot of things we consider rights by default. There's a right to a burial. There's a right to a last meal. There's a right to a will. Some of these have people who philosophize about them but most are taken for granted.

Do you think there's a right to be forgotten? How much do you validate it? What's your reasoning?

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't think you need to be dysphoric to want to be forgotten. I don't think it's any less reasonable than wanting to have a legacy.

The real question is, what does the "right to be forgotten" even mean? You can't have a right that involved other peoples' thoughts. In most cases I think it's the right to be able to own and remove records you created on third party systems.

The right to be forgotten, as I usually read it, is the right to have Google or Meta or whatever to remove your account and everything associated with it. I wish that were law.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, "Right to be Forgotten" is a bit of a misnomer. It's trying to be catchy, but oversimplifies the issue. At the end of the day it's a data privacy concern. It's less about someone else remembering you, and more about someone else resharing information they gathered about you with a third party without your consent. But that's harder to put a name to.