'Right to forget' law for web data

WEB users should be given more control over the personal information that sites collect and store about them, a parliamentary committee has recommended.

A group of MPs looking at a proposed law on digital access have voted in favour of an amendment that would impose a "right to forget" on web and mobile operators.

This would effectively force them to delete personal data such as emails and text messages after an agreed length of time or on the request of the individual concerned.

Socialist MP François Brottes said mobile firms, internet service providers and individual websites needed to understand that they risked losing users' trust if they did not act responsibly with personal information.

The government is to begin work on a report looking at how personal data on the internet and mobile phones, including emails and text messages, is stored and for how long.

Mr Brottes said: "I have upgraded the software on my iPhone twice, and each time it has redownloaded every email I have sent and received since the end of last year.

"You would think that a deleted email would cease to exist, but they are stored somewhere. We do not know where or who has access to that."

The secretary of state for the digital economy, Nathalie Koscuisko-Morizet, is expected to announce plans for a charter on the correct use of personal web data next week.

Photo: flickr qthrul