The right to be forgotten has be come a matter of capital importance, due to the absence of spatial and temporal borders of the Internet. In order to understand eve rything related to this emerging right, it is necessary to analyze what is its true origin, which is prior to the digital age. The main purpose of carrying out this background is to have a deeper and more exhaus tive knowledge of its origins that go back to the end of the 19th century, and which are mainly found in the United States and France.