AI Models Conflict With 'Right to Be Forgotten' Mandates

OneTrust's Ojas Rege Says Neural Networks Can't Unlearn Personal Data on Demand Matthew Perry • November 27, 2025

Artificial intelligence models trained on personal data create a fundamental tension with privacy regulations like the right to be forgotten. "If you've trained the model on my personal data, and I come to you and say, 'Don't use it anymore.' Guess what? You can't. It's embedded in the model, and now you got a problem - a tension between privacy and AI," said Ojas Rege, senior vice president and general manager of privacy and data governance at OneTrust.

Organizations cannot extract individual data from neural networks without rolling back entire models, erasing competitive advantages built through machine learning. Most models that are going to be used may use personal data. "They might be for customer engagement programs, go to market programs. If I have to roll that model ...