Economic Consequences of the Right to be Forgotten

Abstract

The right to privacy and control over one’s own information entails the legal right to request the removal of search results relating to one’s personality if all of those results do not serve the originality of the information or the processing purposes. This paper’s objective is to examine the case for a right to be forgotten from an economic standpoint and the implications of satisfying millions of requests, as well as how the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has changed the way that this right is justified in society. This paper examines the economic consequences of reformulating requirements for realization and the right to remove previously classified material. The consequences are directly related to: the losses caused by a reduction in the amount of data accessible via search engines and the expected reduction in the operators’ commercial interest; the way the right to be forgotten is reflected in the costs associated with processing requests; and the negative effects of violations and sanctions. The conclusions will also evaluate the effects of each search engine’s obligations under the new territorial extension, as well as whether the benefits of upholding this human right outweigh all costs and efforts.