Everyone posts things they regret later in life online. We have all been there, so wouldn’t a law that allows a person to erase these things be amazing? While it sounds good on paper, this idea has more negatives than positives. The idea is called the right to be forgotten. It allows a person to delete their digital footprint, which means that people can erase their embarrassing instagram pictures, but it also allows people to delete more serious posts that determine who a person is. Since the creation of the social security number, privacy has always been in jeopardy. People would have to be careful with where the kept their cards and who had access to them. If there cards got in the wrong hands, they could be dealing with identity …show more content…
When there is a law suit or other type of situation when a person is in court, online posts could be helpful but the judge wouldn’t have access to it if it was deleted. As the document idebate.org states, “photos, videos, comments, and blogs can shed light on these issues should the person be investigated under law” (idebate.org). The judge would use these references to learn more about what the person is really like to decide if he or she is guilty or innocent. If someone posts a lot of racist comments and is allowed to delete them before the judge can see it, that would limit the judges opinion of that person. The same can be held vis versa, “digital footprints can be used not only to sentence people, but also to prove their innocence” (idebate.org). Someone could show that they have never posted anything inappropriate online, which would help a judge see that it is a responsible character who probably would not have committed a crime. However, with the right to be forgotten, a judge will no longer know if that person is actually responsible, or just deleted their negative posts. Some people might even take it to the extreme and “delete everything about themselves” as idebate.org says. They would have the ability, and then their identity online could be constantly changing which could be really hard to catch them if they commit online federal