Image removal

[EveOfChange]

NC.

I have asked a well-known online estate agent (RM) to remove a photo of my home and car from their website and they have refused. They have said that they will only remove it if asked by the owner of the house. I have been the tenant for many years and the owner has always been completely hands-off except for receiving the rent. The photo is the only one and is from a previous sale some years ago. The house is not up for sale, nor is it likely to be. While I am certain that the house owner would not mind the photo being removed at all, I do not feel comfortable contacting them about this in the circumstances as it would involve sharing private, sensitive and upsetting information and cause further delays.

I have had to ask for the removal of the photo because of personal safety concerns. I also contacted Google and thankfully they responded immediately in the circumstances, blurring all the images of my home and car from Street View. I live in a rural area and the house is difficult to find without a photo but much easier with.

I have explained all this to RM but they are refusing to help without involving the owner. I cannot see how RM's desire or need to keep an old photo of my home and car up on their website is more important than my personal safety and peace of mind. They have told me that as the tenant I do not have any rights to have the data - i.e. the photo of my home and car - removed. It seems RM have no concern for women's safety.

I'm quite shocked that RM won't help in the circumstances and the longer the photo remains up and easily searchable on their website the more worried I become.

Advice gratefully received.

Rightmove are not estate agents. They are a website where estate agents can advertise properties. You might get a better result by approaching the actual estate agent.

However, there is no general right to have a house or a car blurred. You can insist on your face and your car numberplate being blurred under GDPR. Google Maps and Apple Maps both blur houses on request, but there is no legal requirement to do so. If your house is photographed from a public place, the photographer can do whatever they want with it.

Thank you for the clarification that RM are not estate agents. The last sale was some years ago and I don't know who the agent was.

RM are saying that the owner can request the image is removed under 'the right to be forgotten' but I cannot. That doesn't seem to make any sense, given what you go on to say, prh47bridge.

Contact them from a different email address and say you're the owner?

Unfortunately RM require documents with proof of ownership and ID, maximist.

It is a somewhat generous interpretation of the right to be forgotten. I can understand why they want to be cautious. However, the right to be forgotten relates to personal data. A photo of a property is not personal data unless it includes an identifiable image of an individual.

This is their usual process prh47bridge:
How do I remove my sold house price images? : Rightmove Help Centre

An owner can request removal without reason. RM said this is under the Right To Be Forgotten in their email reply to my request to remove the image. Surely if they are applying it to the owner, it could be applied to me as the long-term tenant, especially for additional reasons of personal safety.

I don't know if this is at all relevant:
Why are there no images? : Rightmove Help Centre

This is their policy. It is not driven by the law. They can therefore make their own decision as to who can request removal of an image. They do not have to allow long term tenants to request removal of images just because they have allowed homeowners to do so.

From their perspective, allowing long term tenants the same rights could leave them in the position where the homeowner wants the image to stay but a tenant wants it removed (or vice versa). Giving the right only to the homeowner avoids them having to resolve such conflicts.

Why can't you ask your landlord to ask them to remove it? If it's that important to your safety, I doubt they'd object!