Research On The “Right To Erasure” In EU

When the rudiment concept of the right to erasure is proposed in the academic theory,the scope of application of it is very narrow and the application object is specific. It earliest appears in criminal record in the field of criminal justice which is named " not known to the public " and aimed at to protect the person who released from prison free from social discrimination. And it later also used to give the person who has a poor credit record a chance to have a new star in the field of bankruptcy laws. The legal origin of the right to erasure can be traced back to under the legal framework of the United Nations and the European Union. For example article 12 of the《Universal Declaration of Human Rights》, article 8 of the 《European Convention on Human Rights》and article 7 of the 《Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union》are all clear regulated the protection of personal data and privacy interests of citizens, and promoted the importance of the right of personal data as one of the basic human rights. In addition, the sources of the right to erasure(right to be forgotten) can also be found in the EU countries’ legislation system. Such as Sweden’s 《Data Protection Act》(1973), German’s《Federal Data Protection Act》(1977),Britain’s《Data Protection Act》(1984) and so on. These acts are all clear stipulated that the collection, disclosure and use of data must be recorded by the consent of the person or to obtain legal authorization; and made a comparatively detailed regulation of the principles, standards, procedures and remedies for the protection of personal data.The naming of the ―right to erasure‖ which is earliest called as the ―right to be forgotten‖, caused a lot of disputes in academic and legislative circles of the European Union, such as the right to forget/be forgotten, the right to delete, the right to the erasure, the right to oblivion and so on. In the EU official legislative documents《General Data Protection Regulations》(2012 draft), it was named as the ―right to be forgotten and erasure‖ at first. And then, after a series of disputes and recommendations of the academic and legislative circles of the EU,it was finally identified as the ―right to erasure‖ by the《General Data Protection Regulations》(2013 LIBE version). In our country, we should name it as the ―right to erasure‖ for the following reasons: First, the ―erasure‖ is directly indicate the rights object to the data itself; Second, the referent object of ―erasure‖ can contain privacy interests, data security, national security and so on; Third, ―erasure‖ is better to reflect the initiative of the subject of rights; Fourth, ―erasure‖ is more in line with the traditional legal terms of expression.The comprehensive cognition of the EU ―right to erasure‖ can be expanded from four dimensions: the subject, object, content and the boundary of right. It subject of right are all citizens of the EU Member States; the corresponding obligations subject of right are the data controllers, data processors, etc. Its object is personal data, especially the privacy interests, commercial interests, data security and so on. The content can be summarized as that the date subject has the right to demand the corresponding obligations subject erasure the data of it, and stop the spread of the data in the further. The boundary of right mainly refers to legislation of restrictions on the erasure of data and reasonable reason of retention of relevant data, when the conflict between the interests of the subject of right form the freedom of speech, public interests, scientific research and judicial evidence or special provisions of other relevant laws of industry is happened.In the era of big data, the ―right to erasure‖ related to whether the relationship of ―Remember‖ and ―Forgotten‖ can be return to normality or not. Its function is no longer limited to the protection of privacy interests, but also extended to the maintenance of personal, social and national data security interests. The research on the EU’s ―right to erasure‖ is helpful to promote the transformation of its localization in China, and to construct, develop and perfect the relevant legal system of it in China.