Quality of Information, the Right to Oblivion and Digital Reputation - Discrimination and Privacy in the Information Society - page 282

acquires in the digital environment 16 . In the digital environment, anyone can
create information: the Internet is by its very nature interactive, participatory.
Anybody can both receive and transmit information. The ease, speed and often
free services offered to users have facilitated the creation of a market where even
the “buzz conversation” among Internet users can, under certain circumstances,
acquire the value of an instrument of knowledge.
We know that inaccurate information is sufficient to damage the reputation of
someone, as an individual or as a member of an institution or social group. If the
same information is circulated on the web, it may become even more dangerous
for an individual's reputation due to the net's particular characteristics which are
absence of territorial limits, speed of transmission and problematic identification
of the author of the defamatory message 17 .
In the digital environment the processes of social knowledge have particular
characteristics which may have a significant influence on the various elements of
the individual's personality. On the one hand, an individual may be easily
damaged by circulation of defamatory information on the web.
On the other hand, a reputation enjoyed on the web is an asset that when
positive, may grant an economic benefit to the user, especially if the user is a
professional operator in the digital environment.
Reputation can become an instrument of social goodwill which can be used like
any other form of advertising and is essential for anyone wishing to operate in the
field of business. This statement is valid with regard to reputation in the physical
world. However, this statement takes on a very different meaning in the digital
environment, due to the particular characteristics of the network as a means of
social communication.
We can say that the concept of the reputation in the digital environment takes
on a different legal dimension: from a set of opinions expressed about an
individual which the individual cannot directly affect except to a small extent it
becomes an instrument of personal advantage that the individuals can use for their
own personal hands 18 .
A digital reputation can be successfully protected also through quality of
information.
16.2.2 Quality of Information and Automated Individual
Decisions
The risk of distortion to an individual's image increases dramatically when any
decision regarding that person is based on automated processing of personal data.
Indeed, automatic processing information formulated through the interconnection of
different databases, does not necessarily guarantee the accuracy or completeness of
data. One of the dangers for an individual is to suffer damage and be discriminated
against because of decisions based on incorrect or incomplete data. In this chapter
16 (Solove 2007, 32).
17 (Solove 2007, 32).
18 (Ricci 2010, 1297).