Chile has no single «right to be forgotten». There are four distinct rules: the right of erasure, which Law 21.719 expands from 1 December 2026; the financial right to be forgotten, which prevents a debt from being communicated after five years; the oncological right to be forgotten under Law 21.656; and the limit on disseminating sanctions already served. Each has its own time limit and its own claim route.
The essentials in 30 seconds
- Law 21.719 does not use the expression «right to be forgotten»: it regulates the right of erasure (article 7) and the right of blocking (article 8 ter).
- Financial right to be forgotten: a debt may not be communicated once five years have passed since it became due, nor after it has been paid (article 18).
- Oncological right to be forgotten: five years after radical treatment has ended, without subsequent relapse, that history may not be asked for when entering into a contract or used to discriminate (Law 21.656).
- Sanctions: public bodies may no longer communicate time-barred infringements or sanctions already served (article 25; today, article 21).
- The law does not regulate the removal of results from search engines, and erasure is not available against the exercise of the freedom to inform.
«Right to be forgotten» is a borrowed expression. It comes from European law, where the data protection regulation uses it as a second name for the right of erasure. In Chile it is used for things the law treats separately. If you want the full picture, start with our guide to the data protection law in Chile.
That mix has a practical cost. Someone who wants to get out of a debtors' registry does not need the same thing as someone who wants their insurer to stop asking about a cancer they have overcome, or as someone who asks an online shop to delete their account. This article sorts out the four regimes, and says what each one allows and what the company that receives the request has to do.
Does the right to be forgotten exist in Chile?
As a general right under that name, no. Law 21.719 does not use the expression in any of its articles. The law that does carry it in its text is Law 21.656, on the oncological right to be forgotten.
What does exist are four distinct rules which produce the effect people are looking for: that a piece of data from the past stops circulating. The table summarizes them.
| Regime | Provision | What it allows | Key time limit | Where to bring a claim |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Erasure of data | Article 7 of Law 19.628, as amended by Law 21.719 | Requiring the controller to delete the data in six cases. | Response within 30 calendar days. | Before the controller and, if it refuses, before the Agency. |
| Financial right to be forgotten | Articles 17 to 19 of Law 19.628 | Preventing old, paid or time-barred debts from being communicated. | 5 years from the date the obligation became due. | Before the controller of the registry. Today, before the civil court judge; from December 2026, before the Agency. |
| Oncological right to be forgotten | Article 8 bis of Law 21.258, added by Law 21.656 | Preventing a history of cancer from being asked for when entering into a contract and from being taken into account by an insurer. | 5 years from the end of radical treatment, without subsequent relapse. | Through the procedure of Law 19.496, on consumer protection. |
| Sanctions already served | Article 25 of Law 19.628, as amended by Law 21.719 (today, article 21) | Preventing public bodies from communicating time-barred infringements or sanctions already served, except in the registries the law orders them to keep. | From December 2026: 5 years of public access for civil, administrative and disciplinary infringements, where the law sets no period. | Before the public body and, from December 2026, before the Agency if it refuses. |
None of these rules erases the past. What they do is limit who may go on using or disseminating a piece of data, and for how long. The fourth, on infringements and sanctions, is developed in criminal records and personal data.
What is the right of erasure under Law 21.719?
It is the data subject's right to request and obtain from the controller the deletion of the personal data concerning them. Article 7 grants it in six cases:
- Where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.
- Where the data subject has withdrawn their consent and the processing has no other legal basis.
- Where the data was obtained or processed unlawfully.
- Where the data is expired data.
- Where the data must be erased to comply with a judgment, a decision of the data protection authority or a legal obligation.
- Where the data subject has exercised their right of objection and there is no other legal basis for continuing to process the data.
The fourth ground refers back to an old definition that the reform kept. Expired data is data that has ceased to be current by provision of the law, by the fulfilment of the condition or the expiry of the period set for its validity or, in the absence of an express provision, by a change in the facts or circumstances it records (article 2 letter d).
It is not an entirely new right. The text of Law 19.628 currently in force already allows the deletion of data to be demanded where its storage lacks a legal basis or where the data is expired, and also by anyone who provided the data voluntarily, or sees it used for commercial communications, and no longer wishes to appear in the registry. What changes on 1 December 2026 is the scope, with six express grounds, and above all the route: today the path is a civil court judge; from then on, a complaint to the Personal Data Protection Agency.
Alongside erasure there is blocking. Article 8 ter allows the data subject to ask for the temporary suspension of any processing while a request for rectification, erasure or objection is being resolved, or as an alternative to erasure where the data subject prefers the data to be kept but not used. The full procedure is in how to respond to ARSOP requests.
When can erasure be refused?
The same article 7 lists six situations in which erasure does not apply, because the processing is necessary for something else the law protects:
- Exercising the freedoms to express opinions and to inform.
- Complying with a legal obligation or performing a contract entered into between the data subject and the controller.
- Performing a public function or carrying out an activity in the public interest.
- Reasons of public interest in the area of public health.
- Historical, statistical or scientific purposes, and studies or research in the public interest.
- Bringing, exercising or defending an administrative or judicial claim.
The second is the most relevant for a company. It is not obliged to erase a customer's invoice for as long as tax law requires it to be kept, nor the data of a contract in force. But the exception covers the data necessary for that obligation, not everything the company holds on that person: browsing history or commercial preferences are not saved by the fact that an invoice exists.
A refusal has a set form. From 1 December 2026, article 11 requires the controller to give reasons for the decision, state the ground and the information that justifies it, and inform the data subject that they have thirty business days to complain to the Agency. Not responding, or responding out of time, is a minor infringement (article 34 bis letter c). Preventing or obstructing the exercise of the right is a serious infringement (article 34 ter letter e), with a fine of up to 10,000 UTM (monthly tax units).
How does the financial right to be forgotten work?
It is in Title III of Law 19.628, which regulates data on economic, financial, banking and commercial obligations. It has three rules:
Five years. Article 18 prohibits communicating that data «after five years have elapsed since the respective obligation became due». The period runs from the date the obligation became due, not from the date the debt was reported.
Payment. The same article prevents the data from continuing to be communicated after the obligation has been paid or has been extinguished by another legal means. The creditor must notify the registry of the payment within the following seven business days (article 19).
Time-barring. Law 21.719 added a paragraph to article 17 that applies from 1 December 2026: controllers must erase from their registries the information relating to time-barred obligations, with no need for a request, a court order or an instruction from the authority.
There is a nuance that explains why the reply is sometimes negative. Under article 19, payment does not make the data expired while the five years are still running: it can no longer be communicated to third parties, but the data subject cannot require the registry to delete it before that period ends. The full rules, including the debts that can never be reported, are in DICOM and credit data under Law 21.719 (DICOM is the popular name of a private credit report in Chile).
What is the oncological right to be forgotten?
It is the protection that Law 21.656, published on 13 February 2024, added to the National Cancer Law as article 8 bis. It applies once five years have elapsed since the completion of radical treatment without subsequent relapse, and it has three effects:
- Clauses, more onerous conditions, exclusions, restrictions or discrimination aimed at anyone who suffered an oncological disease before the date of the contract are null and void.
- It is prohibited to request oncological information, or to require the person to declare that they have had the disease, when entering into a contract.
- No insurer may take into account the existence of an oncological history for the purposes of contracting the insurance.
Any waiver of this protection is also null and void, and claims for non-compliance are brought under the procedure of Law 19.496, on the protection of consumers' rights.
In the employment sphere the rule is broader and does not depend on that period. Article 2 of the Labour Code prohibits making hiring, continued employment, renewal of the contract, promotion or mobility conditional on not having, or not having had, cancer, and prohibits requiring certificates or examinations for that purpose.
For a company, the consequence goes beyond the insurance policy. Health forms, personal declarations and admission questionnaires must be reviewed: a question about oncological history with no time limit ends up asking those who have already passed that period for data the law prohibits requesting. And that data is also sensitive data under Law 21.719.
Can information be deleted from a search engine or a news outlet?
It is the question with the least satisfactory answer. Law 21.719 contains no rule on the removal of results from search engines: it mentions neither search engines nor delisting.
What it offers are the general rights. The data subject may request erasure where one of the six grounds in article 7 is met, and may object to processing based on legitimate interest (article 8 letter a). Both are exercised before whoever decides the purposes and means of the processing, whether or not they are in Chile: article 1 bis letter c) applies the law to foreign controllers whose operations are intended to offer goods or services to people who are in the country.
With a media outlet the limit is clear. Article 1 leaves outside the law any processing carried out in the exercise of the freedoms to express opinions and to inform, and article 7 repeats that erasure does not apply where the processing is necessary to exercise them. A media outlet does remain subject to the law when it uses data for another purpose, such as sending advertising to its subscribers.
How these rules will apply to search engines is something the legal text does not expressly resolve. Anyone offering a simple, guaranteed procedure to «erase yourself from the internet» in Chile is promising more than the law says.
What must a company do when it is asked to «forget» data?
The request rarely arrives under its technical name. It arrives as «remove me from your database», «I don't want to appear any more» or «delete my account». From 1 December 2026, the article 11 procedure is the same in every case (until then the old text applies, with two business days to respond):
- Identify what you are being asked for. Unsubscribing from commercial emails is an objection; closing an account is an erasure; a paid debt follows the rules of Title III.
- Acknowledge receipt and verify identity. The law requires receipt to be acknowledged, and the request must identify the data subject.
- Decide on blocking if it is requested. A reasoned request for temporary blocking is answered within two business days, and in the meantime you may not process that data.
- Check the ground and the exceptions. Separate what you must keep because of a legal obligation or a contract from what has no other basis.
- Respond in writing within thirty calendar days. The period may be extended once only, by a further thirty. Keep a record of the dispatch, its date and its content.
- Notify those who received the data. If you communicated it to other persons, you must inform them of the erasure.
- If you refuse, give reasons. State the ground and inform the data subject of their right to complain to the Agency.
There is prior work without which none of this can be done on time: knowing where a person's data is. If deleting that person from one system leaves copies in five others, the response will be false even if it is on time. That inventory is the record of processing activities, and the rules on time periods live in the retention and deletion policy.
Would your company know how to respond to an erasure request?
We design the data subject rights procedure with you: channel, identity verification, deadlines, exceptions and evidence. So that an erasure request is resolved in days and does not turn into a complaint before the Agency.
Schedule an assessmentFrequently asked questions
Is there a right to be forgotten law in Chile?
There is no general law under that name. There are four regimes: the erasure of data under Law 21.719, the financial right to be forgotten in articles 17 to 19 of Law 19.628, the oncological right to be forgotten under Law 21.656 and the limit on the communication of sanctions already served in article 25. Of those provisions, only Law 21.656 uses the expression in its text.
How long can a debt be reported in credit registries?
Up to five years from the date the obligation became due. Nor may it continue to be communicated after it has been paid or has been extinguished by another legal means (article 18 of Law 19.628).
Can I ask a company to delete my personal data?
Yes. Today Law 19.628 allows deletion to be demanded where the storage lacks a legal basis or the data is expired, and also by anyone who provided their data voluntarily and no longer wishes to appear in the registry. From 1 December 2026, the amended article 7 recognizes the right of erasure in six cases, including where consent has been withdrawn or the data is no longer necessary.
How long does the company have to respond?
From 1 December 2026, within thirty calendar days, extendable once only by a further thirty (article 11). Under the text in force today, the data subject may apply to the judge if the controller does not give a decision within two business days.
What happens if the company refuses to delete my data?
From the entry into force of Law 21.719, the company must give reasons for its refusal and the data subject has thirty business days to complain to the Personal Data Protection Agency under the procedure in article 41. Until then, the route is the civil court judge.
Can an insurer ask whether I have had cancer?
No, once five years have elapsed since the completion of radical treatment without subsequent relapse. Article 8 bis of the National Cancer Law prohibits requesting that information and prohibits the insurer from taking the oncological history into account when entering into a contract.
Can I require a news outlet to delete a news story about me?
Under the data protection law, no. Processing carried out in the exercise of the freedoms to express opinions and to inform falls outside its scope (article 1), and erasure does not apply where the processing is necessary to exercise them (article 7).
Does erasure also delete the copies held by third parties?
The request applies only in respect of the controller to which it was made. But that controller, where it has communicated the data to other persons, must communicate the erasure to them (article 11). If the data is in the hands of several controllers, the data subject may address any of them.
What is the difference between blocking and erasure?
Erasure deletes the data. Blocking temporarily suspends its processing without affecting its storage (article 8 ter). The data subject may request blocking while a request for rectification, erasure or objection is being resolved, or choose it instead of erasure.
Official sources
- Law 19.628 consolidated with the amendments of Law 21.719 (in force from 1 December 2026)
- Law 19.628 on the protection of private life — text currently in force, Library of the National Congress
- Law 21.656, which establishes the oncological right to be forgotten
- Law 21.258, National Cancer Law
- Labour Code, article 2
This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice for a specific case.