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Why not? People change their names all the time (e.g. for marriage or religious reasons), so there's existing precedence for this. During the name change proces
by andrewfong 12y ago
Why not? People change their names all the time (e.g. for marriage or religious reasons), so there's existing precedence for this. During the name change process, you get a certificate of name change, so that helps with issues with bank account names, contracts, etc. Your friends and family may still refer to you by your old name, but that's generally not an issue from a "right to forget" standpoint. The only difference would be that the government would seal any records regarding your name change.
Changing your name is, at any rate, easier than making other people forget what you did last summer.
- DasIch 12y agoIn the US that might be the case, that doesn't make it so in other countries. In Germany the scenarios in which you are allowed to change your name are all defined by law. While you are allowed to change your name for resocialization or as a protection against harassment, you can get search results removed for reasons that wouldn't allow a name change. Furthermore changing your name takes quite a bit of effort, asking a search engine to remove search results is a much simpler process.
- andrewfong 12y agoTo be clear, my original post was normative. As a policy, the law should favor name changes over a right to demand Google remove a search listing. > Furthermore changing your name takes quite a bit of effort, asking a search engine to remove search results is a much simpler process. Simpler for you, but not for the search engine! Or for society as a whole. More to the point, it should not be easy to erase your name from the Internet. The right to be forgotten is easily abused, and it should be invoked as a last resort not the first.