Penza explained what to do if personal data were in the public domain

Personal information of residents of the Penza region, as well as other Internet users, may be publicly available without their knowledge. Experts recommend regularly checking what information about yourself can be found on the Internet, and if necessary, seek their removal.

About how to act in such situations, RT told the Deputy of the state Duma, first Deputy Chairman of the Committee on digital development Anton Nemkin.

According to him, personal data can get into the Internet as a result of leaks, placement of ads, registration on various online platforms or publications on aggregator sites. At the same time, a person often does not even suspect that his phone number, email address or place of work are available to outsiders.

The danger is that the published information quickly spread to other resources and appear in the search results. Subsequently, this information can be used by fraudsters to deceive citizens.

The first step is to check your digital footprint. To do this, it is enough to enter the name and surname, phone number or email address into the search engine. Particular attention should be paid to directory sites and services that collect personal data.

If information is found, it is necessary to establish which resource it was placed. Then you can contact the owner of the site with a request to remove or restrict access to information.

Anton Nemkin reminded that Federal Law No. 152-FZ “On Personal Data” allows citizens to request information about the processing of their data, as well as to require their clarification, blocking or deletion in cases provided for by law.

To do this, the owner of the resource should send a written appeal, indicating what information should be deleted and on what basis. However, in some cases, an organization may lawfully continue to retain information, for example if required by law.

Another way of protection is the so-called “right to be forgotten”, provided for in Article 10.3 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ. It allows you to contact the search engine with the requirement to stop showing links to certain information in the presence of statutory grounds.

At the same time, the removal of a link from the search results does not mean the disappearance of the data itself from the site. Therefore, the expert recommends contacting both the owner of the Internet resource and the operator of the search engine.

If the requirements of a citizen are unreasonably ignored or the removal of information is unlawfully denied, you can file a complaint with Roskomnadzor or go to court.

Separately, Anton Nemkin warned against the services of dubious intermediaries promising to completely clear the digital trail in a few hours. Such offers can be used by fraudsters to obtain passport data, passwords and confirmation codes.

It is almost impossible to completely remove information from the Internet due to the existence of copies and archives. However, timely appeals to website owners and search engines help reduce the amount of publicly available personal data and reduce the risk of their use by attackers.