The right to be forgotten is a privacy principle that can justify requests to limit how personal data appears in search results and other discovery tools. It usually does not delete the original content; instead, it asks a service to deindex or demote material so it is harder to find by name or other identifiers. In cyber security, that matters because exposed personal data can help attackers with phishing, impersonation, doxxing, and profiling.
Defenders and privacy teams use this principle to reduce search visibility for outdated, excessive, or harmful personal data, especially when the public interest is low. A proper review usually checks identity, relevance, and the risk of harm, then records the decision in an audit trail. It is a useful control, but not a substitute for removing the source leak, securing accounts, or restricting access to the original data.