f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Finally at some point in 2012 the EU is expected to legislate about 'the right to be forgotten' on Internet sites.

It is expected that what this will mean is that users who decide to remove themselves from sites like Facebook have the right to ask and force them to delete all the data thay have about them including all public posts, messages etc. posted by that user during their time on the site.

If this goes through it could spell a massive headache for owners of forums as it will no longer be good enough to change a username to 'guest' and leave all their posts behind for a user choosing to leave the forum..

Instead they will have to delete all their posts completely including any posts in which they have been quoted and by delete I mean completely delete not just hide them from view. Most bulletin baord software doesn't support some of this especially the deleting partial posts in which a user has been quoted so could be a major manual operation for the moderators of such a site.

Will be interesting to see if this becomes legislation and exactly waht the legislation encompasses.

I can see both sides of the argument here, but wouldn't like to be a forum owner/operator if it fully becomes law as feel it puts them in an unfair position. Taken to the full extent of the proposals it could ultimately mean forums such as this one cease to exist unless the bulletin board vendors change their code to allow all traces of a user to easily be removed.

Ant

I would prefer to have this than sopa, now that is a pi$$ take

addi monster

iTrader: (6)

what is sopa ant,, as for the right to be forgotten im all for this,.

Ant

Google it it will exPlain it better than me. Basically banning websites countrywide.

The US are turning into china

Ant

http://m.nbcbayarea.com/nbcbayarea/p...tguid=xYUiicPW

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Ant, if you want to discuss SOPA please create your own thread.

addi monster

iTrader: (6)

wow sopa will be a huge pain in the asse for sure,

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

But that is the point here Dave, that is no longer going to be enough. Those posts need to be deleted completely if this legislation goes through as do the parts of other users posts quoting the user in question. It will be nigh on impossible for some forums running software that doesn't support this type of deletion to comply as short of working through them manually there is no way to do this.

Ant

Sorry your highness

I was merely replying to his question.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Not in post 2 you weren't. Not having a go, just want the subject to remain undiluted and very happy to debate SOPA on another thread

Lee247

Excuse my ignorance on this one, but would it mean if I deleted Facebook I would stop getting all the crap into my emails, that I receive now. I can only assume if comes from FB, as I never got anywhere near as much when I was just on SN

GlesgaKiss

Not a good thing at all in my opinion. When you use these sites, you voluntarily give up your privacy and submit information about yourself. It's then in the public domain in the same way it would be if you had made something known about yourself in the real world.

Bottom line: it's information which has voluntarily been made public, in many cases without the transfer of property necessary for it to be considered a contract, and, where appropriate, that will be covered by the terms of the contract which is voluntarily agreed to.

So, there's not an awful lot of logic to it and it isn't necessarily fair, but now that it's in the political sphere - and involving the EU in particular - we can probably look forward to it becoming a reality.

Jaybird-UK

Interesting F1, do you have any links to this?

Turbohot

Intersting news, f1. It will certainly cause some serious operational difficulties for the forums and social networking sites. Can't forums etc, add some software that helps them to comply with this would-be legislation? I am sure some Apple whizkid () will develop something like that, and save the internet world from the disaster. Other thing is, will Police still reserve the right to retrieve any data (e.g. chat logs, personal info etc.) on people, if required? If forums and social networking sites have to delete everything under the "Right To Be Forgotten", what will they have to give to the Police in case of some criminal online activity? I think the legislation will be thoughtfully worded so that the law can tactfully and holistically operate nonetheless.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Well not necessarily as those people emailing you got your details at a time when the privacy laws were as they are now, but yes in the future it would be more controlled as to who they could pass your data onto without your express permission.

Part of the proposals include a change whereby you have to positivley opt in to have your details shared with third partioes and this has to be a clear popup or whole page explaining what saying yes means not just a few small lines of text.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Just do a bit of search on "internet right to be forgotten"

The reason I mention it now is there was a piece on CNN about it yesterday as the Americans are looking to come on board with the EU at least part of the way.

No dates set yet mind, but 2012 was mentioned as the year for the legislation to be put before the various lawmakers on both sides of the pond.

GlesgaKiss

Yes, it was only a matter of time before this happened. The internet was the great leveller, and now it's coming under central control 'for our own good'.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Must admit I have been thinking about that side of it too. As you say it doesn't make sense if the authorities can't trace potential criminal activity.

GC8

My first thought was that this will be at odds with our current draconian laws whereby ISPs have to pry on you and keep the data for anyone who requires it.

I wonder how this conflict of interest between increased privacy on the one (EEC) hand, and intrusion on the other (states) hand?

GC8

Also, now that Ive contributed to this lame site, do I really have the right to have every word removed retrospectively? Surely removing my association is enough for a forum such as this?

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

It's all perfectly understandable and reasonable on a site like Facebook or Linkedin, where activity is focused around the user, but it would be utter lunacy to try and push the idea too far for message-board focused sites like this. For a start, there's nothing to stop you from quoting other people's comments on here by manually copy and pasting them instead of using the purpose-built quote button, and the second you do that it becomes impossible to tell for certain where the comment you've copied originally came from. Based on past form, a logical flaw of that magnitude would of course never stop the EU from passing a law about it

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Being honest with webmail, clouds, social networking the right to remove ALL data should be given. Or at least a change in terms so that a user is made aware of the data storage, who can see it and what it is used for. And the user made aware they are giving up this right when signing up or by continuing to use a particular service.

When we have the likes of Gmail storing deleted data for years upon years, I do question why they do that and is it fair. I don't support it and as such limit my use of clouds, social networking and even webmail to what I know doesn't matter if it were leaked or used by a thrid party for whatever means. For example if I delete a photo from photobucket...it must actually be physically destroyed, not just moved intact to a trash can somewhere in cyberspace which could still viewable to those with relevent access.

Remember, even stuff you personally delete on a home computer is not actually deleted. Even if you empty the trash can. Its just marked by the fileing system to allow it to be overwritten, which could take months or even years to happen so is often easily recoverable using free software.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

But at least in that case, stuff you delete is still only on your own hard drive, and under your own control. If you really want something gone, you can run software to forcibly overwrite it, or you can take the disc out and physically destroy it.

This is exactly why I don't like the concept of the "cloud" - an intentionally vague term which seems to mean "don't worry about where your data is physically stored, or who might have access to it or for what purpose it might be accessed". My personal data is mine, it's confidential, and I absolutely do care about where copies exist. Having to manage my own backups is a minuscule price to pay for the safety of knowing where they are - and if necessary, being able to remove things from them securely.

PaulC72

It'll give the mods something to do, and they will then be able to see private PM's as they will be deleting them.....

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

LOL, yes imagine how busy Ali, Kieran and co. would be if a load of us wanted our right to be forgotten to be exercised.... every cloud has a silver lining as they say

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvlaojjyTWY

We wouldn't do it - it would be IB....

Or maybe that's what we want you to think!!!

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

No I think you'd find it would be you lot. No point involving the organ grinders is there now.

Will

You'D be waiting decades for IB to do somethig!! As they are useless yank cunts who hasn't a clue how to run a forum

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Season of good will and all that, Will.
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I think you'll find the politically correct term is "American" *****!

And the only way to make someone forgotten is for IB to hit the forum with the neural modulator and I...........I.......

Er...

Carry on!