A Thought on the Right to Be Forgotten Articulated in the European Commission's Proposal for General Data Protection Regulation

In the early 2012, European Union proposed new legal framework, including the right to be forgotten, for the protection of personal data. The new Proposal articulates kind of sweeping new privacy right and there has been debates on its potential threat to free speech in the digital age. While the situation is similar in Korea, I want to introduce the right to be forgotten in the Proposal. Then, I will analyze current legal system in Korea regarding the new privacy right and suggest some guidelines in searching direction for the coming legislation with respect to the right to be forgotten. The right to be forgotten should not have been promulgated without considering fully its effect on the free speech, especially in the society where the voice toward direct democracy or movement toward participation of the citizen, mainly through cyber space or Social Network Services, has risen much higher in Korea. Especially, the new right seems not to cover the control of data subject on a third party where the third party expressing his opinion by posting himself other's personal data on his blog or others.