EU to have right ‘to be forgotten’ law online
March 18th, 2011 - 7:06 pm ICT by ANI
London, Mar.18 (ANI): The European Union has said it will soon introduce a legislation called ‘right to be forgotten,’ that will allow people to have all their stored personal information permanently deleted from websites.
Justice Commissioner Vivian Reding confirmed that she would introduce the strategy after being dissatisfied with the changes made by social networking site Facebook in its privacy settings.
Reding said: “A US-based social network company that has millions of active users in Europe needs to comply with EU rules.”
Proposals will be made to force Facebook and other social network sites to make stringent data privacy settings and to give the users control over their own information.
Reding said: “I want to explicitly clarify that people shall have the right, and not only the possibility, to withdraw their consent to data processing.”
She added: “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.”
National privacy bodies, such as the Britain’s Information Commissioner, will get powers to examine and potentially prosecute companies with services aimed at EU consumers, The Telegraph reports.
Under the new legislation, users will be able to sue websites for invading their privacy and would have a right to be entirely “forgotten” online.
Aimed in particular at the users of social networks such as Facebook and major sites such as Google, the move marks another step in the ongoing battle between information commissioners and major websites.
Reding also said that the protection of personal data was a fundamental right and if users did not want the websites to keep their details, they should be able to have them permanently deleted.
Some websites have argued that making all use of personal data “opt-in” could put free services at risk, as advertisers would be deprived of attractive information that enables them to target commercial activity. (ANI)
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