Following the enactment of Law No. 193 of December 7, 2023, the right to be forgotten after cancer remission has become a pillar in the protection of the rights of people recovered from cancer. This new right has been the focus of recent FAQs published by the Italian Data Protection Authority on August 9, 2024; it represents a significant breakthrough in preventing discrimination and ensuring full social and professional integration for cancer survivors. The FAQs contain useful clarifications on the issues below.
What is the right to be forgotten for cancer survivors?
The right to be forgotten is the right for cancer survivors to omit their previous medical condition when accessing banking, insurance, and financial services, or during employment and competitive selection phases. Specifically, ten years after the end of active treatment-or five if the condition arose before the age of 21-without recurrence, such information cannot be requested or used against the person concerned.
Implications for Banks, Insurers and Employers.
The FAQs clarify that banks, insurers and employers cannot request information on cancer medical history within the time limits set by law. Therefore, cancer medical history will not be able to adversely affect risk assessment in finance or selection for a job. The Italian Privacy Authority has been designated as the body responsible for monitoring enforcement of the law and imposing penalties for violations.
Right to be forgotten and adoptions.
Another crucial aspect of the law concerns adoptions. People wishing to adopt a child cannot be discriminated against because of an oncological condition that ended more than 10 years earlier (or five if it arose before the age of 21). This also applies to international adoptions, ensuring that cancer medical history is not an obstacle in offering a new family to a child.
In conclusion, the introduction of the right to be forgotten offers people who have recovered from cancer the opportunity to look at the future without disclosing their medical history, thus protecting their privacy and fostering full social and labor integration. The FAQs published by the Privacy Authority are an invaluable guide for all banking, insurance and labor professionals, providing the necessary guidelines to comply with this new legal protection.
The full FAQs are available on the Italian Privacy Authority’s official website at www.gpdp.it.