Dan Solove has a characteristically thoughtful piece on the intersection of current events and privacy philosophy. In particular, he claims that we aren’t doing enough to educate young people about the future effects of their youthful actions online. He writes:
“For a long time, young people could experiment, do foolish things, and make mistakes yet still have the opportunity to have a second chance. No longer. So much information about their lives is now recorded and available online. People shouldn’t have to live their entire lives with limited opportunities because of something stupid they did when they were a teenager or college student.”
Solove makes a good point, and one that Viktor Mayer-Schönberger has discussed thoroughly in his book, Delete – The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age. Yet one might reasonably wonder whether, as more of our indiscretions become aggregated and visible, the impact of the “something stupid” will become less and less significant. I don’t fully believe this – but I think it’s at least a possibility to be considered when we put on our optimist hats.
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