Deleting Data

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Deleting Data

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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December 17, 2014 at 8:36 pm

#314002

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Deleting Data

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Awesomo SSC Veteran Points: 265 More actions · Answer 1

Hi

There are some valid reasons for this new law. If I stole something when I was a crazy teenager, should it be known to everyone for evermore? Would you like the first google hit to be "Steve robbed Snickers bar"? Potential employers won't even read the detail, people make decisions just on the headline. People deserve the chance to make a new start.

Berners-Lee idea that "An employer could be prohibited from taking into account a person's juvenile crimes or minor crimes more than 10 years old" is just a pipe dream, how the heck would this be enforced?

Another actual true life incident occurred. A guy, lets call him Tim Lee, was meant to be in the newspaper for a sports award. Unfortunately, on the online version, his photo and name was put against an article about robbing a taxi driver. Tim didn't find out for a week, at which stage the article, with photo, had been republished on loads of websites. All around the world. The newspaper quickly corrected the mistake. But there was no easy way of getting at all the other sites, as they were outside Irish and EU law.

So the full first page of hits on the name Tim Lee returned a story about robbing a taxi. Even one mention of Tim Lee robbing a taxi could do immense damage.

I note that Berners-Lee agrees that incorrect data should be removed. But I think its easier to have one path to removal - you apply, then if its approved, you are removed from the search engines. It will never be totally reliable, but its a good start.

Skanker Hall of Fame Points: 3059 More actions · Answer 2

I agree with this comment. There are lots of vaild reasons for an individual asking for 'their' data to be removed from search engines. Up until this law coming into effect there was no legal way for asking for this to happen.

HanShi SSC-Dedicated Points: 33506 More actions · Answer 3

If the law is a good point or not isn't easy to tell. I can understand both ways, but I tend to the positive way of this law. Nowadays (young?) people almost don't realize the impact information can have on their future. They post everything on the internet, whether it's supposed to be private or not. At some point they can realize the stupidity of those actions, but currently there is no way to remove it. Because of all shimmy terms and conditions of many internet companies the people don't own their own data. This law is intended to give the people a little bit of this control back.

The rootcause is two fold:

1. all data is used all the time, whether it is relevant or not (think about some old shameful holiday pictures pop up during a job interview). A good definition about the relevance of data needs to be set.

2. people don't own their own data anymore. Data is replicated so many times without permission and without knowledge, it's not possible to manage your own data. Good privacy rules needs to be defined and uphold.

...Certainly data about past events is valuable and important...

Not all data about the past is valuable and important. But the hard part is to define which data is and which data isn't. And who is responsible to define this?

** Don't mistake the ‘stupidity of the crowd’ for the ‘wisdom of the group’! **

The Fault SSC Veteran Points: 254 More actions · Answer 4

As a technology expert only, Tim Berners-Lee should not be attempting to determine aspects of the UK rehabilitation of offenders act (or any other country). Where did he pluck '10 years' from? Recent changes to UK law means convictions are considered spent after much less than 10 years now. Standard criminal record searches would not show minor crimes after this time, but a google search would. It seems the internet over time has become a new criminal record bureau with no concept of a spent conviction.

John Mitchell-245523 SSC Guru Points: 148809 More actions · Answer 5

It should be noted that the right to be forgotten is not absolute. It only applies in cases where the information is inaccurate, irrelevant, inadequate or excessive. There's also the question of how effective the law is. If your link is removed from searches made from google.co.uk or google.fr, chances are it can still be found by searching from google.com.au or google.cl.

John

william.d.hodgson4.civ Valued Member Points: 55 More actions · Answer 6

You can't put the Genie back into the bottle. We just need to be resigned, that because of the internet's openness, our lives are now public domain. We need to adapt to this new reality and learn how to protect our privacy and how to fight the invasion of same. I believe that people are adaptable and will figure out all of this without getting the government involved. All of this presents new opportunities for our brethren to excel at what humans do best innovate!

OCTom SSChampion Points: 11785 More actions · Answer 7

There is a balance that we can strive for. The openness of the web was looked at as a good thing. It assumed that all who used it would be nice, kind, and not attempt to do harm. The reality now is that the web may be more harmful to society than helpful. Providing the ability to hide one's personal information is a step towards balancing the wish of openness and the real need for personal privacy. I don't buy the line that all privacy is lost and therefore, I must accept it.

Tom

akljfhnlaflkj SSC Guru Points: 76202 More actions · Answer 8

I think it is OK. It allows an individual a pathway to fix bad data. Will it be abused to just change history we don't like, sure. But aren't we already use to this? Educators and politicians have been doing this forever.

william.d.hodgson4.civ Valued Member Points: 55 More actions · Answer 9

Not simply roll over and accept. Privacy as we used to know it is gone. Learn how to protect yourself and from there how to protect those around you. But do go in with eyes wide open and learn how to deal.

Robert.Sterbal SSCrazy Points: 2855 More actions · Answer 10

What level of transparency will be given to requests?

Dave62 SSCertifiable Points: 7459 More actions · Answer 11

I think the right to be forgotten should be way more inclusive then just correcting bad data. I don't think it should be about right or wrong data. I think it should be about privacy.

An unlisted phone number for example is a correct bit of data that people currently have a right to not have publicly listed in phone books.

I can think of hundreds of pieces of information that I consider more personal than my phone number. Why don't I have the right to say what pieces of that information I want publicly available or not?

kiwood Ten Centuries Points: 1074 More actions · Answer 12

For those not liking this I ask how you would feel if an accusation of wrong doing kept you from employment for many years after you were shown to not be guilty. This is a very real situation for some in the age of Google. An unfortunate reality is that many people don't dig deep in results. They type a name and glance at the first page of results making a decision. And some people end up with very unfair results in the top of their search. Certainly at some point a person should be forgotten.

HighPlainsDBA SSCrazy Points: 2611 More actions · Answer 13

This law sounds asinine to me and seems skewed against the greater good of society. If you're misrepresented (libel, slander, or defamation) then you sue the individual in court, not conjure up some new global 'right' and all the economic and legal burdens that come along with it for the rest of society. I sympathize with the goal but pass a more targeted law. If another site publishes it then perhaps they should simply be liable for damages? That seems more sensible to me then trying to purge the world's databases of every reference I find objectionable or inaccurate with a push of a button. I shudder at that the thought of the expense, waste and ineffectiveness of it all.

Eric M Russell SSC Guru Points: 125519 More actions · Answer 14

If you have an application that routinely deletes records that were previously inserted, then it implies there is something wrong with the design. Deleting records in a relational database is problematic for a number of reasons. For example, when a customer changes addresses, the fact that they once lived at 123 Main Street is not irrelevent. Even if the address was entered incorrectly, there may be shipping orders tied to that address that have been imported into an external accounting system, or actual product may be in route to that old address in the real world and there is still a need to have that address on record for the purpose of reconcilliation.

Also, deleting records is also very expensive in terms of performance. In addition to index fragmentation, it can cause more locking and blocking when compared to so something like updating a DELETE_TIME column.

Then of course there is the issue that executive management, accounting, or external auditors have this habbit of coming back months or years after the fact to request that old reports be reproduced.

"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho