On May 25th, 2018 a law took effect in the European Union that allowed for consumers to request the complete records any company has on them. It also compels a business to delete that data if requested by the consumer. There are some exceptions but they are few, relating mostly to medical and taxation purposes.
Here is an EXCELLENT explanation from The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/22/17378688/gdpr-general-data-protection-regulation-eu
Here is the complete law
https://gdpr-info.eu/
Why is the data deletion law important regardless of where you live?
It allows you to request that most corporations delete any data on you if you are an European citizen. It has been argued that even if you are not an EU citizen, if the company does business in the EU you can still request deletion.
For example, Amazon is based in Seattle Washington but does business in the EU. Even though we are American citizens we can request data deletion. Amazon has no way of verifying our citizenship status. The EU has a hefty fine for non-compliance so the feeling is most corporations will delete the data rather than fight each individual request.
What does that mean to you? That you can demand delation of your data from any website or business or service that you don’t want to.
Join a website that you no longer use and want to keep your email address and password from being harvested if the website gets hacked? – send a data deletion request so they have to delete those
Tired of getting spam from a website you bought shoes on 3 years ago? send a data deletion request so they forget who you are
Join a porn site and afraid of it being hacked and you being exposed? send a data deletion request
Get kicked off a dating website for sneaking your email address into your profile because you didn’t want to pay? – send a data deletion request so they can’t keep a record of that
Once notified a corporation or website only has 30 days to respond. Keep in mind that many are getting thousands of requests a day. They don’t have time or the manpower to fight many requests so get yours in now.
Here is a sample of the data deletion request for EU citizens (US Citizens below)
I am a European Union Citizen. Your business also operates in the EU and is bound by all EU laws. Under EU law I am requesting the right of the consumer to request complete data erasure.
I am requesting this erasure immediately. No details of my account should be retained. This includes, but is not limited to, records of email addresses, passwords, IP addresses or photographs. I will verify that this is done and report any violations.
Here is a sample of the data deletion request for US Citizens
I am an US citizen from the state of ________. Your business also operates in the EU and is bound by all EU laws. Under EU law, the law of my state of _________ and any laws in your home location, I am requesting the right of the consumer to request complete data erasure.
I am requesting this erasure immediately. No details of my account should be retained. This includes, but is not limited to, records of email addresses, passwords, IP addresses or photographs. I will verify that this is done and report any violations.