Legal Definitions - wipe

To wipe, in a legal context, refers to the act of officially and permanently removing, deleting, or expunging information, data, or records from a system, database, or official document. This action often occurs due to a court order, statutory requirement, or a legal right, effectively making the information inaccessible or treated as if it never existed for certain purposes.

• Imagine a young person who committed a minor, non-violent offense when they were 18. After successfully completing probation and remaining crime-free for several years, they petition the court to have that conviction wiped from their record. If the court grants the request, the conviction is legally expunged, meaning it will not appear on most background checks and the individual can often legally state they have no such conviction.

  This illustrates 'wipe' as the legal removal of a criminal record, allowing the individual to move forward without that past offense hindering future opportunities.

• Under certain data privacy regulations, like the GDPR in Europe, individuals have a 'right to be forgotten.' If a customer requests that an online retailer delete all their personal data—such as purchase history, shipping addresses, and payment information—the company is legally obligated to wipe that data from its systems, provided there are no overriding legal reasons to retain it.

  Here, 'wipe' signifies the mandatory deletion of personal data from a company's databases as a legal requirement to protect an individual's privacy.

• During a sensitive divorce proceeding involving children, a judge might issue an order to wipe certain highly personal or confidential details, such as medical records or specific financial account numbers, from the publicly accessible court filings. While the full record exists internally, the public version is redacted to protect the parties' privacy.

  This example shows 'wipe' as the removal of specific sensitive information from public view within official court documents, often to protect privacy or confidentiality.