Social media sites will be forced to remove postings between friends which recommend brands – if they are asked to do so – as part of the EU’s ‘right to be forgotten’.
That is the verdict of a top data protection lawyer, despite reports that Brussels has ruled that most postings between friends will be exempt.
The move could pile on the misery for the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Google+ which are already facing the prospect of greater data transparancy in the proposals, as well as their advertising clients.
In classic legalese, the draft, unveiled last month, exempts the rules from applying to “the processing of personal data … by a natural person without any gainful interest in the course of its own exclusively personal or household activity”.
The definition of personal or household activity is still a grey area, but Pinsent Masons data protection lawyer Kathryn Wynn said: “The moment social networks act as anything other than a mere host of content, they are going to come within the scope of the regulation.
“The high functionality of Facebook and the way users’ network of activity can lead to personalisation would mean it would be hard to know when user exchanges fall within the exemption.”
But she added: “If Facebook was able to glean an inherent benefit from processing postings, such as allowing advertisers to market products based on the interaction, then that processing would have to be considered within the scope of the draft. This would mean Facebook would generally be obliged to delete the information upon request.”
Last week, Google insisted that search engines should not be responsible for deleting personal data from the Internet – that should be up to the individual.
Related stories
Google slams ‘right to be forgotten’
ICO: EU laws ‘poorly thought out’
New data laws ‘Sword of Damocles’
