Abstracts Category : Other

The Right to Be Forgotten: Analyzing Conflicts Between Free Expression and Privacy Rights

by Mindy Weston

As modern technology continues to affect civilization, the issue of electronic rights grows in a global conversation. The right to be forgotten is a data protection regulation specific to the European Union but its consequences are creating an international stir in the fields of mass communication and law. Freedom of expression and privacy rights are both founding values of the United States which are protected by constitutional amendments written before the internet also changed those fields. In a study that analyzes the legal process of when these two fundamental values collide, this research offers insight into both personal and judicial views of informational priority. This thesis conducts a legal analysis of cases that cite the infamous precedents of Melvin v. Reid and Sidis v. F-R Pub. Corp., to examine the factors on which U.S. courts of law determinewhether freedom or privacy rules.