A BARCELONA-BASED company specialising in data erasure has said the right to be forgotten should continue to apply in a post-Brexit Britain.
The right was enshrined in European law five years ago and is defined as “the right to silence on past events in life that are no longer occurring”.
Since then, many thousands of companies and individuals have taken advantage of it to have negative information or imagery deleted from internet records.
Now Eliminalia has said the law should still apply to the UK once it leaves the EU, at least in the short to medium term.
The Barcelona-based firm, which has clients around the world, including the UK, said people and companies have raised increasing concerns about the power of harmful information on the web, which is capable of destroying their image. It said the internet has become a part of daily life and that being aware of the impact information can have on our future is essential.
READ MORE: Why Your Business Should be Looking into Cyber Security
“Unfortunately, the print we leave on the web lasts longer than we would like and sometimes it ends up becoming decisively harmful for our present or future reputation,” said the firm.
Individuals and companies are increasingly aware of this and consequently, the services of Eliminalia have been much in demand.
Didac Sánchez, who founded the firm in 2011, said: “There are many organisations and people who may feel unprotected when negative information about them appears.
“Our job is to help it disappear to allow them to continue with their normal lives.”
Eliminalia’s business project manager for the English-speaking market, David Castellà, said in around two years it had served more than 300 clients in the UK. Among them are “important entrepreneurs and large corporations that needed to improve their reputation on the internet and eliminate false information that was harmful for their sales and reputation”.
Castellà said they used a global team of experts with a deep knowledge of internet security from varying perspectives, who could delete data and harmful information.
He told The National: “Basically, we help our clients to carry on with their life without being worried their personal information is spread out around the internet and to be protected against fake news, which unfortunately nowadays is increasing its online presence.”
Eliminalia’s clients have included a CEO from a company who had been a victim of industrial espionage and an actress who had reinvented herself and wanted her old pictures removed from social media platforms.
“When we began our business activity in the UK, the majority of our clients were individuals. However, the number of companies that required our services has increased drastically since then.”
While their business may be ensuring that people have the right to be forgotten, he insisted it was all done ethically: “We filter all the enquiries we receive and reject those which are not according to our values.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here