The right to erasure, also called the right to be forgotten, lets individuals seek deletion of qualifying personal data. Under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it is one of several data-protection rights, alongside access, rectification, restriction, portability, and objection. section 3.15
The GDPR made this right enforceable in 2018 and applied it even when personal data—such as names, contact details, or social-media posts—is publicly accessible. Its protections can also reach organizations outside the EU processing data about people in the EU. section 3.14 section 3.15
The right is best understood through its legal setting:
- It forms part of a broader framework requiring lawfulness, fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimization, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity, confidentiality, and accountability. section 3.15
- It helped make the GDPR a global reference point, influencing privacy laws such as Brazil’s LGPD and China’s PIPL, although implementations differ. section 3.14
- Its treatment here establishes the right’s meaning and significance but does not specify a deletion-request procedure or every legal qualification. section 3.15
