The ‘right to be forgotten’ by Google has snowballed into a debate over privacy, cyber crimes and freedom of media. Experts say it could be a game-changing tool to prevent online menace. By Karan Bhardwaj
Glorifying oneself on Internet may soon be a matter of past. After an overexposure of online media, especially on the social networking websites, people are now asking Google to ‘forget’ about them. The search engine launched a service recently where the netizens can ask it to remove the inappropriate or objectionable links about them. This action has initially come after the European court ruling which gave people the right to be forgotten online. This unique service, which has already received more than five million requests in Europe, has snowballed globally into a discussion about privacy, cyber crimes and freedom of speech, information and expression.
The trickle down effect can be seen here as well where Medianama.com has reportedly become the first Indian website to receive request by an individual to remove certain links. Interestingly, the individual has cited the European ruling as a defence. Though there’s no such provision in India, even in the cyber laws, experts say it’s high time India, too, should respond to the privacy issues and reform the cyber laws. “India is getting strong in e-commerce. Big players are foraying into it. It is the right time to prepare a style sheet in advance on how to deal with such cases,” says cyber expert Rakshit Tandon.
As per a study published by the privacy pressure group Big Brother Watch, 68 per cent of people surveyed expressed their concerns for online privacy and 22 per cent said that they were “very concerned about their private information”. Many people expressed their concerns over erasing social media accounts, lack of control over pictures posted by others and problems with Google’s search function showing outdated or incorrect information of an individual.
MATTER OF PRIVACY
Whatever we post on Internet, the job of a search engine is to troll it and put it in one place. At times, the personal information is vulnerable to intruders or malified hackers. The hackers aim to extract personal information for various reasons including identity theft or crime. “There can be anything available on any website which I don’t like or anybody can share some personal info which can go against me, so it would help us to curb cyber crime. It must not be limited to search engines. It can be applied to other online vendors which are using the information. They should have right to privacy and due permission must be taken,” says Tandon. A lot of people fear that the attempt could infringe the freedom of online media. Experts say technology is smartly played up and appear to be inexplicable sometimes. However, it is a matter of filter and apt softwares to set it right. “The question here is to protect the privacy of netizens and not to curb the freedom of speech and expression. Whatever is public will always be reported by media. The issue here has more to do with individuals. I may upload information on Twitter or Instagram to share it with selected number of people but that doesn’t give right to other online traders to ‘use’ it for their advantages. It then becomes threat to me,” says Tandon.
IT’S A BIG DEAl
The right may also challenge the existing shape of digital data. People may not like today what was written some 10 years ago. “The selective information of the past could become a defamatory asset in the present. For instance, five years ago, a lady had fought a divorce case against the husband which was extended for years. For her, the legal battle had become an obstacle in getting a new job. Most of the recruiters found the information online and they were not keen to hire her because of her court case. Naturally, she won’t like it,” Tandon tells us. Dealing with the right to be forgotten could be a technical as well as a social challenge. There are billions and billions of bytes stored on the digital platform. Evaluating them and merit and demerit the cases could be a tedious and expensive task. So search engines might have to set up a special technical force to handle the matter. “There is a perception among people that you will find everything on Internet, be it dating back to Mahabharata or Indus Valley civilisation. So the powerful medium of Internet is taken for granted, there’s hardly any difference between individuals and celebrities,” points out Tandon.
THE REVERSE TREND
Earlier when we had social media junkies flooding it with posts, photographs, articles and poems, the present scenario appears to be a retreating trend. Today people rate Internet security over anything else. Hence, people are holding themselves back from sharing anything and everything on the Internet, which is not privy to its user’s activities and information.
Sociologist Nikhil Raheja says that any one would be mentally harassed and peeved with the continuous intrusion into their private lives. “Excessive of anything is annoying. People don’t want every aspect of life to be known by everyone. Having your name on the first few search results initially does provide a kick/boost to your image but later, you would not want to be seen by gazillions of websites and blogs. Some of them are fake and misleading,” he says.
Raising concern on the authenticity of websites, he says a few websites sensationalise and tamper with the facts and information that a person or company must have shared on the Internet, which may bring bad repute to them. Also, if a person had a tainted past and enough has been talked about him in the online arena, he/she would never want to revisit the same years later. Though there’s no provision for a right to be forgotten, either in the Information Technology Act 2000 or the IT Rules, 2011, India, for that matter, we do not even have a privacy act as yet. Most people have little idea about the privacy provisions of Facebook. They put up marital status and contact numbers openly. “There is still lack of awareness and it will take time to grow. There’s a big market today with smartphone in every hand. So there’s a huge potential,” comments an expert.