Spain - The right to be forgotten. The right to privacy and the initiative facing the new challenges of the information society

Abstract

This article aims to show the current situation surrounding the right to privacy in the Spanish legal system. First of all, we look at the regulations governing the right to privacy and at the characteristics of the Spanish protection of privacy. In the second part of the paper, we consider the current regulations on personal data protection as the grounds for new ways of protecting privacy. Finally, the paper shows how two new rights have emerged from the legal discourse on privacy and, overall, from the regulation of the protection of personal data: informative self-determination and the right to be forgotten. This study focuses on the latter, due to the prominent role of Spanish judges in shaping the incipient right to be forgotten via inter-action with the European Court of Justice in 2014.