Thaindian News

London, March 17 (IANS) The European Union will enforce a law to ensure users of social networking websites such as Facebook the “right to be forgotten” on the world wide web.

The EU justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, said he intends to force social networking sites to make high standards of data privacy the default setting and give control over data back to the user, the Guardian reported.

“I want to explicitly clarify that people shall have the right - and not only the possibility - to withdraw their consent to data processing,” Reding was quoted as saying.

“The burden of proof should be on data controllers - those who process your personal data. They must prove that they need to keep the data, rather than individuals having to prove that collecting their data is not necessary.”

Under the proposed legislation to be unveiled this year, privacy watchdogs will be endowed with powers to take legal action against firms that target EU consumers, the report said.

Reding’s spokesman, Matthew Newman, said: “A year ago she issued Facebook a warning because the privacy settings changed for the worse and now she’s legislating to put flesh on those bones.”

Facebook profiles have been accessible by default since January last year. The website, however, allows its users to opt in to ensure that their photographs and other information can be viewed only by friends.

Newman said companies “can’t think they’re exempt just because they have their servers in California or do their data processing in Bangalore. If they’re targeting EU citizens, they will have to comply with the rules.”

The rules would give consumers a specific right to withdraw their consent to sharing their data. “And after you have withdrawn your consent, there shouldn’t even be a ghost of your data left in some server somewhere. It’s your data and it should be gone for good,” he said.

“Facebook is fully engaged in the debates around the review of the European Union’s data protection directive,” said a company spokeswoman, Sophy Silver. “We work closely with data protection authorities across the EU and with the European commission and parliament.