The European Union, apparently following former Google CEO Eric Schmidt's lead, is letting anyone and everyone know that it's ok to go wild, post embarassing pictures of yourself on Facebook because they're going to see if you have the ability to remove it.
In case you missed this, last year Mr. Schmidt raised a ruckus by saying that he believes that every young person will one day be allowed to change their name to distance themselves from embarrassing photographs and material stored on their friends' social media sites.
Or as I put it on my blog post at the time... everyone can get one of these... a Get Out of Jail Free card.
Apparently they play Monopoly in Europe too...
From an article writte in The Guardian last week...
In a speech to the European parliament, the EU justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, warned companies such as Facebook that: "A US-based social network company that has millions of active users in Europe needs to comply with EU rules."
Here's the EU rules... at least some of them:
"I want to explicitly clarify that people shall have the right - and not only the possibility - to withdraw their consent to data processing," Reding said. "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."
Yeah good luck "proving" that you need to keep a picture of someone wearing a lampshade over their head standing naked on someone's front lawn.
Reding's spokesman, Matthew Newman, went on to say "Maybe you've been at a party, up until four in the morning and you or someone you know posts photos of you. Well, it's a harmless bit of fun, but being unable to erase this can threaten your job or access to future employment."
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 "And after you have withdrawn your consent, there shouldn't even be a ghost of your data left in some server somewhere.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," Newman said.
Wow, no ghost, either?
Newman also said that the laws would make the EU the first jurisdiction to deliver a "right to be forgotten".
'A right to be forgotten.'
Just let that line sink in for a minute...
Bob Marley once said "In this bright future you can't forget your past."
My how things have changed... You can not only forget your past, you can permanently delete any and all record of it!
Source: The Guardian