What is Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten)?
The right to erasure (often called the right to be forgotten) lets an individual ask an organisation to delete their personal data when there is no lawful reason to keep it. It’s a privacy right in laws such as the EU GDPR and some other national/state laws.
The right to erasure gives people the ability to request that organisations delete personal information about them — for example names, contact details, or answers that can be linked back to an individual — when retention is no longer justified. It is not absolute: organisations can refuse requests for valid reasons such as complying with a legal obligation, exercising freedom of expression, public-interest archiving, or defending legal claims. Deletion typically means removing data from active systems and preventing it from being used to identify the person, though anonymised or aggregated data that cannot be traced back to an individual can usually be retained.
Usage example
A parent completes a school feedback survey in their preferred language. Later they contact the school and ask for their responses to be deleted. The school verifies the request, removes the parent’s identifying details and any linked responses from the active survey database, documents the action, and confirms whether any anonymised summaries including their answers will remain in aggregated reports.
Practical application
For organisations using Hearo, respecting the right to erasure reduces legal risk and builds trust with communities who may worry about how their multilingual responses are used. Practically, teams should: publish clear retention and deletion policies in all supported languages; provide an easy way to submit and verify deletion requests (without forcing participants to create accounts); distinguish between deleting personally-identifying data and keeping anonymised insights; and ensure deletion is propagated across translations, exports, reports and backups where required. Designing surveys with data minimisation and optional identifiers from the start makes fulfilling erasure requests faster and simpler.
FAQ
Does the right to erasure mean we must delete all copies of a response immediately?
Not always. You must delete personal data from active systems unless an exception applies (e.g., legal obligations). You should also take reasonable steps to remove data from backups and caches where feasible, but some backup processes may delay complete removal. Where immediate deletion is not possible, inform the requester and explain the retention timeline.
What if we need the response for legal or auditing reasons?
If you have a lawful reason to retain the data (for example to comply with a statutory record-keeping requirement or to defend a legal claim), you can refuse the erasure request in whole or in part. You should record the reason for refusal and communicate it clearly to the requester in their language where possible.
Can we keep anonymised or aggregated survey results after deletion?
Yes. If you irreversibly anonymise responses so they can no longer be linked to an identifiable person, those anonymised datasets can generally be retained and used for reporting or analysis. Document how and when anonymisation was performed to show compliance.
How should multilingual platforms handle erasure requests?
Provide privacy notices and clear instructions for requesting deletion in the languages your communities use. Verify identity consistently, track requests in a central place (one survey, not multiple translated copies), and ensure deletion affects translations, stored translations of responses, exports and any third-party processors. Where translation improvements or community feedback affect stored content, treat that content according to whether it contains personal data.