Is it legal for a newspaper to publish your address?

quizzy78

Hi all,

Some background:
About 12 years ago I was the victim of an assault. As part of the witness appeal, a local newspaper wrote an article (with pictures of my injuries) detailing the attack. Within the article is my personal address.

It's been some time since this event and I'm over it. However, the article appears within google search results for my name.

I have contacted Google - who have removed it from search results (as it contains my name and address), however, it still appears in non-EU search results.

I contacted the paper directly and they said they do not remove articles even if my address is present within the article.

My questions is: Is this really correct? Can a newspaper publish your name and address online (maybe 12 years ago, but what about in light of GDPR, etc). Any and all opinions, recourse most welcomed and thank you in advance!

boo_star

I suppose you can argue that you have the right to be forgotten?

Potbellypig

No idea on the answer in truth, but I'm interested to know why it's an issue? If someone really wanted to find your address (not sure why they would), but if they did, then it would be easily obtained one way or another.

My opinion - forget about it and move on.

JamoLew

Why did you not ask them to remove it from the article 12 years ago ?

Were you happy for it to be in print but not online ?

Depending on your profession it may be desirable to not have the info easily accessible I guess.

Can you not contact the none EU section of Google asking for the info to be removed ?

Manxman_in_exile

I'm surprised that the newspaper published your full (?) address even 12 years ago. Is that what they did, or did they only give sufficient information to allow you to be identified? (eg J. Smith of xxxx Road in YYYY and there's only one house on xxxx Road in YYYY).


As suggested in an earlier post, you probably should have complained at the time. (I'm finding it difficult to imagine why a responsible paper would publish the address of a victim of/witness to an assault).


Have you explained to the paper that you only want your identifying details removed, and not to have the whole article removed? (I can sort of understand why they would not want to delete the whole article).


I can't (yet) think of any legitimate reason why they would want to keep your address after 12 years.


If you get nowhere with the paper, I'd ring the ICO for advice. (In fact you may want to do that before going back to the paper again. Make sure you've got all the facts to hand).


I can fully understand why you want to have your address removed.

davidmcn

Potbellypig wrote: »

No idea on the answer in truth, but I'm interested to know why it's an issue? If someone really wanted to find your address (not sure why they would), but if they did, then it would be easily obtained one way or another.

And they're unlikely to assume that your address 12 years ago is still current anyway.