Europe is considering a sweeping new law that would force Internet companies like Amazon.com and Facebook to obtain explicit consent from consumers about the use of their personal data, delete that data forever at the consumer’s request and face fines for failing to comply, Somini Sengupta reports in Tuesday’s Times.

The regulation would compel Web sites to tell consumers why their data is being collected and retain it for only as long as necessary. If data is stolen, sites would have to notify regulators within 24 hours. It also offers consumers the right to transport their data from one service to another — to deactivate a Facebook account, for example, and take one’s trove of pictures and posts and contacts to Google Plus.

A spokesman for the European Commission’s justice commissioner told the BBC that some of the new rules were meant to help younger people manage their online reputations. “These rules are particularly aimed at young people as they are not always as aware as they could be about the consequence of putting photos and other information on social network Web sites, or about the various privacy settings available,” Matthew Newman said.

In a column for The Times in August, Natasha Singer wrote about the European idea of “the right to be forgotten” — to erase oneself from databases. “I discovered that I, as an American, did not actually have an automatic right to demand that a company erase personal information about me,” she wrote.