Vint Cerf: EU right to be forgotten’ is not executable

Vint Cerf, known as one of the founders of the internet, has in an interview strongly opposed to the proposal for a new privacy regulation of the European Union. One of the pillars of these is the ‘right to be forgotten’.

The right to be forgotten is ‘impossible to achieve’, said the American computer scientist Vint Cerf. In an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph he is on the European regulation around privacy of the beginning of this year. According to him, would in practice not be possible, because it is too easy to get something locally to save and later upload again. This would the rules mean that websites like Facebook and Google must occur to ensure that content is no longer accessible.

According to certain rechtsspecialisten is, such a scheme also impossible, because Google and Facebook as ‘internetpolitie’ should occur, with fines if they do not. Cerf, who, incidentally, at Google, works, thinks that people in the future else going to behave as if it is about sharing information about others. Someone is going to, according to him, not just sensitive information about someone else to share in the knowledge that that himself as well, it can happen.

The regulation around privacy specifies that persons may submit an application to data processors, such as social networks, to have his or her personal data to delete. This would enable companies only data is allowed to collect that are really needed. However, what exactly is meant by ‘necessary’ is not entirely clear.