23. 01. 2012

EU proposes 'right to be forgotten' by internet firms

Brussels, January 23, 2012. (BBC News) - A new law promising internet users the "right to be forgotten" will be proposed by the European Commission on Wednesday.

It says people will be able to ask for data about them to be deleted and firms will have to comply unless there are "legitimate" grounds to retain it.

The move is part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the commission's 1995 Data Protection Directive.

Some tech firms have expressed concern about the reach of the new bill.

Details of the revised law were unveiled by the Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich.

A spokesman for the commissioner clarified that the action was designed to help teenagers and young adults manage their online reputations.

"These rules are particularly aimed at young people as they are not always as aware as they could be about the consequence of putting photos and other information on social network websites, or about the various privacy settings available," said Matthew Newman.

He noted that this could cause problems later if the users had no way of deleting embarrassing material when applying for jobs. However, he stressed that it would not give them the right to ask for material such as their police or medical records to be deleted.

Although the existing directive already contains the principle of "data minimisation", Mr Newman said that the new law would reinforce the idea by declaring it "a right".