News - EU data protection revamp to be proposed Wednesday

[HEXUS]

Discussions over the "right to be forgotten".

Read more.

[Saracen]

Hallelujah, Amen, Whoopee and About Flaming Time.

The devil, however, is always in the detail.

For instance .... the exception of

"legitimate" grounds to retain it

requires "legitimate" to be defined. It's like "reasonable" - it's very subjective.

All told, it looks like a step in the right direction, and possibly a substantial one, if and when it comes into effect, and if it doesn't get watered down first. I especially like the "right" to forget, and the apparent elimination of opt-out tick-boxes. If companies genuinely want to to something that should require our consent, actively seek it rather than assuming you've got it unless we notice and opt-out.

[aidanjt]

And then there's the one rule for joe public, and another for the authoritarians:

Individuals have the right to request what data is held about them (with exceptions such as data that may prevent a crime).

I wonder how many more of those are in the small print.

[Saracen]

And then there's the one rule for joe public, and another for the authoritarians:


I wonder how many more of those are in the small print.

Well, that exception and a few others have been in the DPA since the start. The existing exceptions are fairly few, but fairly deep. For instance, you can justify a lot by labelling it "national security", especially when the fact that it's about "national security" also means you can't explain why you can't release it.

But that's the cynic's viewpoint. The other, of course, is that there are issues that can't be discussed for national security reasons that are, genuinely, to the benefit of us all, and I guess, ditto "prevention of crime".

The problem, as always, is that something that can be a damn good genuine reason can also be used as a superb excuse for hiding the inexcusable.

[Hicks12]

Good, however i find that not all support people understand this law (to a reasonable level) so it can be a bit annoying, for instance i bought a pair of speakers from dixons which were about £200 cheaper than elsewhere and eventually they cancelled all orders, fair enough but i wanted to be removed from their databases as i dont shop there... after emailing support a few times they ended up removing me from the mail list instead of deleting said account.

I dont have time to ring up companies so i couldnt be bothered to sort it out and gave up. Hopefully this sorts it

[riding moon]

This looks like a very good move for us. Two I like in that you can't pass information out of the EU and clearly spelling out not to pass onto third parties.

But will they word the tick boxes cleverly just as they do now. It would be good to see a clause to have a standard message to include yourself into and not out of. Also having the ability to select a language the statement are in would be highly useful.