Reminiscent of a depressing Sci-Fi movie title, “the right to be forgotten” is a concept that is new to this digital age and will soon be a defining debate for our generation.

The right to be forgotten is essentially the right that individuals have to request that any less-than-desirable content about them on the Internet be taken down. The concept has been debated since the global boom in Internet usage, but has now hit the forefront of mainstream media and popular culture due to a controversial ruling in Europe last year.

Mario Costeja Gonzalez took to the courts of the European Union last year asking to be digitally forgotten, and with the help of the highest courts in Europe he won. Gonzalez’ problem began when he found that a Google search of himself pulled up an auction notice for his repossessed home that he lost in 1998. Gonzalez found that his personal financial troubles and that information being on the Internet was a violation of his privacy rights. The courts of the EU ruled that upon request, Google must remove any information that the individual requests.

Although the ruling only has power over search engines operating in Europe such as Google.uk, it still raises a lot of complicated questions about privacy, Internet legislation and territoriality.

By giving citizens this seemingly temporary and almost ineffective right, the EU courts have essentially only slowed down the process of finding that information. The Guardian.com did an analysis after Google’s advisory council consultation and summed it up as “closing the door to the house while leaving all the windows open.” If you think about it, that seems pretty fitting. By coming to this ruling and only having jurisdiction within the European Union, it seems almost pointless at this point, but it could still cause a domino effect over the whole globe.

If the rest of the world does agree with this ruling in the future, it seems like it will be more effective to do it on a national scale. If you think about it, how likely are you to use Google.es? By de-linking this information in one country’s preferred search engine that should be enough to keep individuals’ immediate privacy.

John Oliver recently discussed the complicated issue on his show “Last Week Tonight,” and addressed how backwards of an issue this is. The man mentioned before, Mario Costeja Gonzalez, originally wanted the links taken down so that no one knew his financial situation. Look at where he is now. Mr. Gonzalez is essentially the poster boy for the right to be forgotten not only in Europe but also around the world. So people need to ask themselves, is it really worth it at this point?