IFLA's Committee on Copyright and other Legal Matters (CLM) has released a statement about the right to be forgotten (RTBF) and highlighted ways in which librarians should inform themselves about – and participate in – the RTBF debate.
The purpose of RTBF court rulings and legislation is to allow individuals to make information about themselves more difficult to discover.
IFLA's advice for library professionals includes:
- Advocate for transparency in the criteria and processes used by search engines
- Advise users on search terms/alternative search engines where their results may be affected to RTBF decisions
- Help individuals who require advice on RTBF
- Oppose the removal of links from the results of name searches of public figures.
- Fully support access to information for researchers who require personally identifiable information for biographical, genealogical and other research and publications
The full IFLA statement is available here.