This paper intends to study international and domestic discussions on deleting information which infringes privacy and personal data on the internet, thereby identifying the legal issues to be discussed further. First, this paper overviews the legal methods, inside and outside Japan, on how to delete information infringing the legal interests and rights of a person. Second, it analyzes judicial decisions regarding the “right to be forgotten” made by the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the relevant provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation. Third, it examines domestic court decisions on deleting search results, and touches upon the recent amendment to the Personal Information Protection Act. Finally, it argues the interpretational and legislative issues to be discussed further.

The number of consultations requests to the Illegal Harmful Hotline regarding defamation, invasion of privacy, slander, etc. has been increasing. It provides advice on how to request deletion of information for those who claim to have been victimized bySNS. This is done in accordance with relevant laws and guidelines, taking into consideration the balance between “relief of victim” and “freedom of expression”. It can be difficult for claimants to understand the requirements for removal of information from social media, etc. Therefore, the role of the Center, which provides support to Internet users, is becoming increasingly important in an environment that is becoming increasingly complex.

If an anonymous third party uploads your portrait on the Internet and your portrait rights have been infringed, you may file a lawsuit against the provider to demand disclosure of the sender's information in order to obtain the third party's name, address and other information. In this type of lawsuit, the court's judgement on the infringement of portrait rights has some characteristics differ from those in ordinary lawsuits for damages, taking into account the provisions of relevant laws and the characteristics of the case. This paper shows, based on the analysis of court cases, the characteristics of judgments on the infringement of portrait rights in cases demanding the disclosure of sender information.

With the increase in the number of SNS users, the increase and diversification of Internet services used by individuals and the spread of cloud services, the handling of digital data of the deceased has recently become a focus of attention. In Japan, there is no unified legal system regarding the digital data of the deceased. The EU's GDPR and Japan's Personal Information Protection Law, in principle, limit the scope of protection to the deceased. In contrast, in the US, many states recognize the right of publicity of the deceased. This paper compares the legal systems of various countries regarding the handling of digital data of the deceased, and examines how users should deal with them.

In order to realize Society 5.0, it is required to develop human resources who can appropriately think of goals and solutions by utilizing advanced information technology and solve problems by utilizing information moral when they face problems. The theme of this special issue, “It is difficult to delete information transmitted on the Internet,” is an important issue of information moral. In this paper, I will explain the “teaching method based on three types of knowledge” to develop the ability to solve information moral problems, and describe how to make people think of indelible problems as their own.