One of our European offices has recently been contacted by a person who
is named in a number of our published documents. The person is now unhappy
that their name is appearing on the internet library which contains all
our published documents and would like it removed. The person has been
featured in (amongst other publications) the Amnesty International Report
- our Annual Report which is published worldwide, simultaneously in print
and on the web in four languages and is also translated into a number of
other languages. The item is not featured in any way on a front page of
the website, but is in our "library" where the data subject would have to
make a text search to find the personal data embedded in the body of a
large document.
We can obviously not remove the person's name from the print copy and, if
we remove the name from the web copy only, it ceases to be a facsimile of
the published print copy. I cannot say at this stage where the
information we used to describe the person's case came from (whether from
the individual in person, from contacts or family members or from press
reports), but having examined the published copy, it looks like something
which was taken from a press report.
Has anyone else faced requests of this nature to selectively remove
information from a publication which is not inaccurate, but constitutes an
inconveneniece or embarrasment to the data subject?
I don't think we are under any obligation to remove the information and,
if it is technically feasible we might consider replacing the name with
initials as a gesture of goodwill, but I think it is an interesting
question.
Regards
Chris Catton
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