Every year (yes YEAR) I give myself a digital detox day (http://nationaldayofunplugging.com/) and a spring cleaning day for my files and desktop. Sometimes we may feel that our lives cannot go on without using the internet because we use it every day. Having at least one day a year where I don’t have to worry about notifications is really important to me.
We’re all messy people on the internet. As a very busy student, sometimes I tend to leave files on the floor (so to speak). There are always emails that slip by or embarrassing Facebook photos that we are tagged in. It is our job to clean that up. By organizing everything there is this sense of having a clean mind or a clean slate.
Many important files, photos, and interactions are through the net. We see on apps such as timehop that this data never gets completely erased. If all of these interactions are saved and recorded and stored to the “cloud”, does this mean that we are given eternal life through the internet? An episode of Black Mirror touches upon this concept (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2290780/). The question asked here: When we die are we really dead?. If there was an AI that could read all of our messages and mimic our style, could we be recreated?
In the UK, people have actually fought for the “right to be forgotten”. Think about it, whenever your name is googled the top story could possibly be a negative one or one that you may not prefer. If criminal records can be cleared why not the internet? Especially since many employers now “google” their candidates. At this time, the right to be forgotten only applies to certain countries/regions in Europe. However, many argue that because the internet is global any ruling or law regarding the internet should also be global. Internet law is an incredibly complex issue and it is usually dragging years behind.
Regarding offline deletion, many computers now have a “file recovery” system. The idea behind this is that when data gets deleted it is not actually “deleted” but overwritten. The remnants of the old file are still embedded within another. If we act quickly, this is why we are able to recover files. However, as mentioned in the below article, eventually the file will be completely gone but this is long after deletion.
We’re all messy people on the internet. As a very busy student, sometimes I tend to leave files on the floor (so to speak). There are always emails that slip by or embarrassing Facebook photos that we are tagged in. It is our job to clean that up. By organizing everything there is this sense of having a clean mind or a clean slate.
Many important files, photos, and interactions are through the net. We see on apps such as timehop that this data never gets completely erased. If all of these interactions are saved and recorded and stored to the “cloud”, does this mean that we are given eternal life through the internet? An episode of Black Mirror touches upon this concept (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2290780/). The question asked here: When we die are we really dead?. If there was an AI that could read all of our messages and mimic our style, could we be recreated?
In the UK, people have actually fought for the “right to be forgotten”. Think about it, whenever your name is googled the top story could possibly be a negative one or one that you may not prefer. If criminal records can be cleared why not the internet? Especially since many employers now “google” their candidates. At this time, the right to be forgotten only applies to certain countries/regions in Europe. However, many argue that because the internet is global any ruling or law regarding the internet should also be global. Internet law is an incredibly complex issue and it is usually dragging years behind.
Regarding offline deletion, many computers now have a “file recovery” system. The idea behind this is that when data gets deleted it is not actually “deleted” but overwritten. The remnants of the old file are still embedded within another. If we act quickly, this is why we are able to recover files. However, as mentioned in the below article, eventually the file will be completely gone but this is long after deletion.
http://nationaldayofunplugging.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2290780/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/technology/right-to-be-forgotten-should-be-extended-beyond-europe-eu-panel-says.html?_r=0
http://www.howtogeek.com/197436/what-happens-to-data-when-it-gets-deleted-from-your-recycle-bin/
--Angelo