Ten years ago you were a director of a Spanish company, perhaps a small SL set up to buy a property or run a business on the coast. The company was wound up long ago, yet when someone searches for your name they find a profile on a company directory listing positions, dates and linked companies. Sometimes the details are not even correct any more. The source is nearly always the same: the BORME.
Where that information comes from
The BORME (Boletín Oficial del Registro Mercantil) is the official gazette of Spain's Companies Registry, the Registro Mercantil. It publishes everything that is registered there: incorporations, appointments and resignations of directors, changes of registered office and dissolutions. That information is public by law, because it protects anyone who does business with a company.
Many websites then collect that data and organise it by person: Axesor, eInforma, Infoempresa, Empresia, Libreborme and others like them. Some sell business reports, others live off advertising. The result is that your name stays linked to companies for years, even if you have had nothing to do with them for a long time. Foreign owners often only discover this when a bank, a buyer or a new employer abroad searches for them.
What is personal data and what is not
A company's own details (its name, its registered office, its accounts) are not personal data. But your name as a director, attorney or sole shareholder is, so the GDPR applies to it. The same goes for self-employed people (autónomos) who appear in these directories.
That matters because it gives you rights against each directory:
- Right to object (Article 21 GDPR): you can object to the processing of your data on grounds relating to your particular situation, when it is based on legitimate interest.
- Right to erasure (Article 17 GDPR): you can ask for your data to be deleted when it is no longer needed for the purpose it was published for, or when your objection has succeeded.
- Right to rectification: if the data is inaccurate, for example if you are shown as a serving director when you resigned years ago.
The BORME and Google
The BORME, like the BOE (Spain's main official gazette), does not delete what it has published. What you can do is ask Google to stop showing those PDFs when someone searches for your name, using the right to be forgotten. Your chances improve when the company no longer exists, you left it a long time ago and you have no significant business activity today. There is more detail in our guide on removing the BORME from Google (in Spanish).
How to ask the directories
- Make a list of the directories where your name appears. Search for yourself in quotation marks, and try variations: Spanish records often show two surnames, or your name in a different order from your passport.
- Find each site's privacy channel: it is usually in the legal notice (aviso legal) or the privacy policy, with an email address or a form.
- Send a written request identifying yourself, listing the exact URLs and stating the right you are exercising (objection and erasure, or rectification). You can write in English, but a short version in Spanish usually gets a faster answer.
- Explain your particular situation: that you resigned on a given date, that the company was dissolved, that the profile is harming you professionally.
- Keep a copy of what you sent and the date. The controller has one month to reply, which can be extended by two further months in complex cases (Article 12(3) GDPR).
Bear in mind
Some directories reply that they process the data on the basis of legitimate interest and that it comes from a public source. That does not stop you exercising your right to object: it obliges them to weigh up your specific situation. If they do not reply, or refuse without giving reasons, you can complain to the AEPD, the Spanish Data Protection Agency.
What results are realistic
To be honest: if you are a serving director of a company that is trading today, a directory or Google is unlikely to remove the information, because there is a clear interest in it being known. The best chances lie with old positions, dissolved companies, incorrect data and profiles that mix your name up with someone else who shares your surnames.
Do not forget the cache and search engines
When a directory deletes your profile, Google can take a while to catch up. If the old result is still showing after a reasonable time, you can use Google's tool to request a refresh of outdated content.
If there are many directories
When your name appears on ten or fifteen sites, doing it yourself is slow and each one answers differently. We can take care of the whole process: we analyse for free where you appear, tell you what has a realistic chance and give you a fixed quote. The final decision lies with each website or search engine. More information on removing data from company directories (in Spanish). We work in English, remotely, and deal with the Spanish sites and authorities in Spanish on your behalf.
