The Right to be Forgotten: Can You Actually Force Apps to Delete Your Data under the DPDPA?

The present paper examines the feasibility of the Right to Erasure prescribed by Section 12 of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023. Despite its official claim to be India’s adoption of the “Right to be Forgotten” (RTBF), a deeper dive into implementing such a right as part of corporate processes exposes the struggle between the right of users and the duty to retain data according to the mandate of the state. In contrast to general descriptions of regulatory requirements of the DPDP Act, this paper will explore the specific sources of conflict, including the superior compliance systems set forth by the federal government (PMLA, tax laws, and cybersecurity regulations); “Data Resurrection” in distributed cloud storage systems; and "continuous processing purposes" enshrined in standard Terms of Service for corporations. Finally, it is argued here that in the absence of strict standardisation by the DPBI, the right to delete becomes only an illusion for consumers.