An interesting point in our discussion this week was about the right to be forgotten ruling in some EU countries. The legislation lets you go to Google and ask that certain information no longer be connected to your name in search results, as it no longer pertains to the “you” of today. The ruling doesn’t require Google to take down the original source, however.
Reading a bit more about this on Wikipedia, it appears that a user submits a request to have a certain list of URL’s removed, and then Google employees (or other search engine employees) assesses the request. I’m curious how Google decides which of these cases to approve or which to deny, and if there are specific criteria or if it’s just done on a case-by-case basis by an individual reader/decider.
In addition, the right to be forgotten concept seems to connect, in some ways, to our desire to craft our images online (on social media, LinkedIn, or other sites.) The higher the degree of accessibility, the more we feel the need to curate and control what others see (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, from a privacy perspective.) At the same time, there’s a balance between overly curating and restricting accurate/relevant data from circulating.
You’ve made an important connection. I think that this space is far from resolved, and it will be very interesting to see where the tensions you describe go over the next decade.