Eric Schmidt Still A Fan Of Figuring Out A Way To Erase The Past
from the seems-more-likely-to-become-more-accepting dept
Back in 2010, we wrote about Google's Eric Schmidt suggesting that in the future kids might change their names as they reach adulthood in order to disconnect their present-selves from their youthful indiscretions that were recorded permanently online. That seemed a bit silly to us at the time, but Schmidt is still focused on this basic concept apparently. His latest is the desire for some sort of delete button for the internet, again as a way to cover up some youthful indiscretions:"In America, there's a sense of fairness that's culturally true for all of us," Schmidt said. "The lack of a delete button on the Internet is a significant issue. There is a time when erasure is a right thing."Of course, this makes me wonder, what the hell did Eric Schmidt do as a kid that was so bad?
Yes, yes, we erase the criminal records of youthful offenders when they come of age, but I think this is something different. Trying to delete factual information from the internet is a quixotic task, unlikely to yield much that's beneficial.
Perhaps instead of trying to delete the past, society as a whole will become a lot more accepting of the fact that kids do stupid things when they're young. And many of them learn valuable lessons from those stupid things and they grow up to be better people. Plenty of folks have funny tales of their youthful indiscretions and, while these stories may be more difficult to embellish for effect if the details are all sitting on YouTube, does it really make more sense to try to delete that history or just to recognize that kids grow up and things they did as teenagers do not reflect how they're likely to act as adults?
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Filed Under: data, erasing the past, eric schmidt, facts, history, internet, privacy
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Bilderberg
The same guy who refuses to discuss his membership in the secretive Bilderberg group.
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Re: Bilderberg
Skeptoid.com: the Bilderberg Group
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I would hope that intelligent people would be aware of this and take it into consideration. We have all done things that we are not proud of but those things make up who we are today. Every human being makes mistakes (that is just human nature), but it takes a truly remarkable human being to learn and grow from those mistakes.
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Don't count on it.
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Actually changing your name is not a bad way to do it
Unfortunately you can't do it selectively, and there will likely be agencies that will sell the service of connecting the old name to the new.
But I know when I changed my name at marriage my publication record essentially vanished.
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I admire your optimism that people will do the right thing. We all live in a small town now where everyone knows what you did and what you're doing.
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Re:
The deliberate public statements made by a mature adult in direct relation to his employment showing how clueless he was about his own industry are somewhat different to some dumb crap a teenager does that ends up online without his permission, don't you think?
"I admire your optimism that people will do the right thing. We all live in a small town now where everyone knows what you did and what you're doing."
I believe the point of the article was "we can't effectively erase things from the internet, so it's down to society to accept that these things happen when people are young and adjust opinions accordingly". Ultimately, everyone growing up in the fully online era is going to have things like this in their history. So, it's in everyone's best interests not to judge, say, a 30 year old based on something online from when he was 12. It might take a while, but that's definitely a more achievable goal than erasing a person's entire history from the internet.
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Re: Re:
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The public is not the government
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But in today's world, the consequences are total
This will be the first generation that grows to adulthood with nowhere to hide from their stupidity. Do we really want to make people who do stupid when they are 12 or 13 unemployable for life?
Note, by the way, that the well-off and well-connected will NOT have to suffer this fate. They do not get jobs by applying online. They get jobs through daddy's friends, and the Yale buddies they went to school with. This is strictly an issue for the 99%.
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Re: But in today's world, the consequences are total
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Re: But in today's world, the consequences are total
The reality is that right now, the upper management at major companies did not grow up with the technology nanny recording their every move. They never put a YouTube video up of them drinking with their buddies because there was no YouTube.
That will not always be the case. It is going to take a generation to move people into the top positions (possibly the well-connected, but that's where they were going anyway) and they will likely understand this kind of stupidity and it will become less important.
The people that are complaining now are the ones that decided to act stupidly first. It is not an entire generation. I know plenty of 18 year old kids that have never posted something stupid on Facebook. If their early discretion and good judgement gives them a competitive edge - fantastic, that's the way the world should work. The playing field should not be leveled too the lowest common denominator.
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Hmm
That sounds eerily similar to "Why are you so concerned about privacy unless you have something to hide?"
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Figuring Out A Way To Erase The Past
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Delete button is censorship
Professor Volokh has written an excellent paper about the free speech implication of a similar legal theory -- namely the right nnot to be talked about.
But an even more problematic aspect of the argument for a delete button is its notion that anyone has any right to control republication of truthful information.
If John Doe had a criminal conviction in 1950,1980 or 2000 and it was mentioned in any public record or in any other way leaked to the public, tbanning republication is a clear free speech violation.
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Other motives?
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Teenagers
Let's say as an example you did something silly like dress in a costume for halloween that might be considered somewhat racists or sexist according to some future standard (blackface, anyone?). Is it really fair that this image might get drudged up during a job search 20 years later, costing you future employment?
We expect our kids to somehow have adult values and adult levels of intelligence, when honestly many of the adults online don't seem to have it. Is it really realistic to keep all their stuff out there?
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Re: Teenagers
Ah...but what we do post on the Internet can be public if we choose it to be. We can delete stupid Facebook posts and pictures at will. When someone with a juvenile record turns 18 in the US, that record is sealed from the court system's use and cannot legally be used against that person in any way. What you did is sealed off.
Do you see the problem in what Schmidt is proposing as it entrusts web users not to lie about their ages, and websites to fully erase your personal data when you become an "adult"?
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Re: Teenagers
Why should I have to remove photos of a riotous party just because you want it forgotten while I don't?
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Re: Re: Teenagers
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Consent
Consent is also limited.
If I participate in an interview, I have no right to withdraw my consent to the effect that everyone knowing of my action should have their archives deleted and being jailed or punished for speaking about me.
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Intent versus implementation
The challenge is to transform this desire to workable procedures and laws. You don't necessarily need a "right to be forgotten" for a basic implementation of this. However, you do need cooperation of commercial and noncommercial parties that collect or buy your information, with or without laws to facilitate it.
Without laws, you need alternative incentives for these commercial and noncommercial parties. Reputation (naming & shaming) can work for big brands.
Such initiative, even with big leaking holes and only covering (say) 70%, would be a big improvement over the current situation. It would also provide a learnings how to further improvement.
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To "delete" is an improper description
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You mean things like that?.
Or maybe the kid that shaped his pastry as a gun playing with his friend? Or the the episode where kids used pencils as imaginary swords and were punished? Or maybe the kids that made gun sounds while pretending their hands were the guns and got suspended?
We are actually walking in the opposite direction. I tell you, the only thing I'll demand from my kids will be good grades and respect towards others. And that they play pranks, do stupid things and everything a kid should be doing. Lucky me I don't live in the US. And double the lucky for my future children.
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