Forget About Being Forgotten

Abstract

User concerns about the dissemination and impact of their digital identity have led to the spread of privacy-enhancing and reputation-management technologies. The former allow data subjects to decide the personal information they want to disclose in the limited scope of a particular transaction. The latter help them adjust the visibility of the information disclosed and tune how other people perceive it. However, as the sources of personal information are growing without their control, and both original and deceptive data coexist, it is increasingly difficult for data subjects to govern the impact of their personal information and for the information consumers to grasp its trustworthiness so as to separate the wheat from the chaff. This paper analyses the aforementioned risks and presents a protocol, an architecture, and a business approach supporting both data subjects in replying to the information linked to them and consumers in gaining opportune access to these replies.