I feel that the following news item dated 19th March 2011: Online right 'to be forgotten' confirmed by EU explains much but there are several points to bear in mind.

Whereas at the moment it is mega sites such as Facebook and Google who are being targeted once the law has been enshrined the principle will move down the food chain.

Before anyone gets too deep into this I would like to point out that I signed into the monastery yesterday and the only information that I was asked for is a name, user name and email address. All of which are justifiable on the grounds of standard communication. It is stated quite clearly when you join that your data is not used for any other purposes at all (not the way it is explained but you get the idea).

I strongly believe that the target for the law is sites which redistribute information for sale as lists and those which use it to target advertising. Whether you believe it is right or wrong this is more about politics than computers. The following quote sums this up for me:

Some websites have argued that making all use of personal data “opt-in” could put free services at risk, as advertisers would be deprived of attractive information that enables them to target commercial activity.

As a non profit members only website which only requires the absolute minimum of information which it keeps in house I believe that the Monastery has nothing to worry about.

A link from the home page to a privacy policy containing a statement to the effect of the above, written by someone who understands such things, should suffice and even this will not be necessary for quite a while yet. The one thing that EU justice is known for is being s - l - o - w.

Hope this helps.