Right to rub out embarrassing pictures and data posted online floated by The Australian Law Reform Commission

WISH you hadn't posted that drunken photo online? The Australian Law Reform Commission floats the idea of a "right to erasure''.

The Australian Law Reform Commission says people should have the right to have embarrassing photos they posted online removed fr

RED-faced Australians would win the right to erase compromising photos from the internet, under privacy changes proposed by the nation's peak law reform body.

As thousands of schoolies post embarrassing pictures on social media, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has floated the idea of a "right to be forgot and to erasure".

Australians could win a legal right to "rub out" those drunken party pictures posted on social media - before the boss sees them.

But privacy groups are demanding the right to censor other people's posts as well, if they are embarrassing or defamatory.

The ALRC says the "right to erasure'' is being considered in the European Union.

"This proposal would introduce the requirement that organisations, such as social media providers, permanently delete information at the request of the individual who is the subject of that information", it says in a discussion paper on privacy in the digital age.

"In the Australian context, some protection against ongoing exposure of private information may be available if data controllers were required, in limited circumstances, to delete an individual's personal information on request."

The head of the ALRC review, Professor Barbara McDonald, said the rubout rights would only apply to details posted online with the person's consent.

"Where a person has given consent for something to go up on Facebook, they should be able to withdraw that consent,'' she said.

"But it wouldn't help for something put up without their consent.

"You might think, 'I now realise I was really stupid to do that', and ask your friend to take it down, but enshrining it in law would be pretty difficult.

"We can't give people the right to erase history.''

The Australian Privacy Foundation has told the ALRC inquiry that Australians need the right to delete any personal information about themselves, such as photographs and video, posted online.

"In many cases what you put up is permanently published on a global scale,'' the foundation's vice-president, David Vaile, said.

"It's very difficult to get off some of these sites …. and even when they do say they'll turn it off, it goes into the archives or backups.

"You should be able to control information about yourself.''

Facebook already lets its users delete information they have posted - but has no control over images or information collected by search engines such as Google.

A spokeswoman said Facebook already had tools for users to remove information they have shared, or to deactivate or delete their account.

"Facebook supports a right of erasure - namely that people are able to remove information that they have contributed to a service and that, at that request, that information should be deleted forever,'' she said.

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

Electronic Frontiers Australia - a group promoting "online freedom'' - warned that politicians could exploit any take-down rights to "censor'' the internet.

Its executive officer, Jon Lawrence, said it would be "practically impossible'' to remove any information or photos that had gone viral.

###