Existence and enforcement of a right to be forgotten in China

Abstract

This research examines establishment and enforcement of the right to be forgotten under the Chinese legal system, including the origin and characteristics of the "right to be forgotten", as well as the regulations on "erasure" in China. It finds that protection challenges stem from the fact that personal data can be publicly accessible online. In addition, different countries, which are electronically connected through the internet, may have different legal protection measures for a right to be forgotten. In China, a legislative protection on a right to be forgotten is relatively weak. Firstly, compared with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Chinese legal system does not have mechanisms to call for and respond to deletion of personal data that must be forgotten made publicly accessible by a search engine company. Unlike Article 17 of the GDPR Personal Information protection law of China does not explicitly stipulate the right to be forgotten in the law; whereas, other areas of laws namely, civil law, cyber security law, are not sufficient to practically guarantee a right to be forgotten.