Data protection compliance shouldn’t be a privilege reserved for organizations with a legal team on speed dial.
That’s why we’re releasing the GDPR Article 17 (“right to erasure”) request form we built for our own website visitors, service users, and book contributors: free, unbranded, and editable, for anyone to use.
Why we’re doing this
Building a data deletion request form that’s actually proportionate takes real thought. This means one that doesn’t demand a passport scan for a routine request, but still protects against phishing and identity theft. We put that thought in already. No reason to make every small org, nonprofit, or solo project reinvent it from scratch.
What’s inside
- A structured breakdown of the six legal grounds for erasure under Article 17(1) GDPR, grouped by whether they typically need follow-up
- A proportionate identity verification framework: email/passcode first, document requests only as a last resort, with clear redaction guidance
- Granular deletion scoping (full, special-category-only, or itemized)
- The Article 12(5) fee/refusal clause, including the (often-skipped) disclosure that we carry the burden of proving a request is unfounded or excessive
- A signed declaration section
Take it. Use it. Adapt it.
The template is released under the CC0 public domain license.
No attribution required.
No strings attached.
Swap in your own branding, adjust the grounds to your context, and ship it.
[Download the unbranded template here]
We hope it saves you some time.
Send us kudos if you like here.