Nicole Fortunato was a speaker at the postgraduate course ‘Law in the Digital Transition’, with a session dedicated to the topic ‘The Right to be Forgotten in the Digital Age’, which took place on 24 April.
The session addressed the definition and legal origin of the right to be forgotten, including its constitutional enshrinement, its framework in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the relevance of Directive 2019/790. The lawyer addressed the scope and practical application of this right, exploring issues such as who can exercise it, under what circumstances, and the difference between content removal and de-indexing in search engines. Legal exceptions were also analysed, namely cases where the public interest or freedom of the press prevails.
One of the central moments of the lecture focused on the impact of the right to be forgotten on society, in particular on the balance between individual privacy and the right to information. The implications for the work of journalists and historians were discussed, as well as the risks associated with censorship and the erasure of collective memory.
Nicole also addressed the main technological challenges in implementing this right, such as the difficulties in permanently deleting data from the internet, the role of artificial intelligence in tracking personal data, and the resistance offered by technologies such as blockchain, which make it difficult to delete decentralised records.
The session included an analysis of key case law, highlighting the cases Google Spain vs. AEPD and Mario Costeja González (2014) and Google vs. CNIL (2019), as well as other relevant examples. There was also time to address the impact of the right to be forgotten in the business context, with recommendations on good practices in personal data management and the handling of requests for erasure.
See the full programme for the Postgraduate Course ‘Law in the Digital Transition’.
