Right to be Forgotten - Right to Privacy in the Internet Age

Right to be Forgotten - Right to Privacy in the Internet Age Abstract The first chapter of the diploma thesis aims to identify the threats to human privacy and forgetting that were brought on by the advancements in the field of information and communication technology in the recent decades. Both privacy and forgetting have important functions in the life of the individual, as well as on the societal level. The protection of those functions, whose analysis can be found in the second chapter of the diploma thesis, is one of the basic tasks of modern, liberal and democratic societies. Unless we want to leave the evolution of our civilization up to the technological developments and their often unforeseen (and unforeseeable) consequences, it is imperative that we systematically evaluate their impact on society. Such evaluations should then serve as bases for devising regulation (both legal and non- legal) that would eliminate or at least mitigate the identified societal threats. In the context of human privacy and forgetting, one of the outcomes of such an impact assessment and regulatory consideration is the right to be forgotten. This right can be seen as a legal instrument protecting the informational aspect of human privacy, or rather the informational self-determination of individuals, in the new reality..