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EU member states are subject to the (soon to be rewritten) Data Protection Directive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_95/46/EC_on_the_protection_of_perso

EU member states are subject to the (soon to be rewritten) Data Protection Directive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_95/46/EC_on_the_protection_of_personal_data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_95/46/EC_on_the_prote... In the UK, for example, this is implemented by the Data Protection Act 1998: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Protection_Act_1998 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Protection_Act_1998 The guidelines for complying with the DPA talk a bit about deletion here: http://www.ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/information_standards/~/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Practical_application/deleting_personal_data.ashx http://www.ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_... "If you offer users the option to delete personally identifiable information uploaded by them, the deletion must be real i.e. the content should not be recoverable in any way, for example, by accessing a URL from that site." In fact the DPA takes it even further by requiring that personal data "shall not be kept for longer than is necessary" ie. you are supposed to delete any personally identifying data once you're done using it for it's original purpose (or another legal use). Granted, I imagine it would be pretty hard to bring a case against a company for either of these things, and I can't tell if the former is legally binding or just a "guideline," but it's not outside the realm of possibility...

mcphage 13y ago
> the DPA takes it even further by requiring that personal data "shall not be kept for longer than is necessary" ie. you are supposed to delete any personally identifying data once you're done using it for it's original purpose (or another legal use) I think you could easily argue that "needing it for an undo feature" is still a legal use for that data. But, thanks for pointing out that "delete" is a lot more legally loaded a term than I had assumed. It makes a pretty convincing case to call things "remove" instead of "delete".
- dandelany 13y ago
  Maybe so, I'd be really curious to talk to a UK lawyer who has some experience in these matters to get a sense for how they're enforced. Thanks for asking the question and inspiring me to do the research - like you I assumed there was no way "delete" was regulated, but decided to look it up before replying and was very surprised.

mcphage 13y ago

> the DPA takes it even further by requiring that personal data "shall not be kept for longer than is necessary" ie. you are supposed to delete any personally identifying data once you're done using it for it's original purpose (or another legal use) I think you could easily argue that "needing it for an undo feature" is still a legal use for that data. But, thanks for pointing out that "delete" is a lot more legally loaded a term than I had assumed. It makes a pretty convincing case to call things "remove" instead of "delete".

dandelany 13y ago
Maybe so, I'd be really curious to talk to a UK lawyer who has some experience in these matters to get a sense for how they're enforced. Thanks for asking the question and inspiring me to do the research - like you I assumed there was no way "delete" was regulated, but decided to look it up before replying and was very surprised.