27th April 2012 Washington DC, USA
Do we have the right to be forgotten on the internet?
Last night I hosted an event for former Marshall Scholars at the Embassy with a brilliant talk by Jeff Rosen on Google, the internet, and privacy. This is of course a hot topic at the moment – for the public, for Governments, for NGOs and for businesses. I’ve also got a keen interest in it as a newly arrived diplomat with a predilection for blogging on both work and life. Particularly as this blog is public, with no restrictions on who might be reading about me right now. It’s also interesting to think of people reading my random thoughts in years to come – and how the things written by or about me now might impact on people’s perceptions of the future me.
I recently polished off a marathon Anthony Trollope audiobook series, which I’ve been listening to since my jogs around St James’s park as a London dweller training for the Royal Parks half marathon to my jogs around the Tidal Basin as a DC-dweller training for the Chicago half marathon. Bereft as I listened to the final words, I asked a bookish friend for his suggestions of what I should read next. His response came in the form of a charming blog where he described my predicament and obligingly asked his readers for suggestions. Watching the space shuttle being delivered last week, I was intrigued to hear he had been in two minds over whether to post identifiable information about me on the internet, even in the benign context of his book blog. He had rightly concluded that I wouldn’t mind, but what would happen if I changed my mind one day? This was the real crux of Jeff Rosen’s talk: do we have the right to be forgotten, or are we destined to live forever on the internet?
The US and the EU take different approaches to this quandary. Rosen argued that this difference can be explained by the US having a tradition of liberty, while Europe has a tradition of dignity. An interesting comparison, and one that he reckons goes some ways to trans-Atlantic differences in cybersecurity motivations. But it’s probably true that both sides of the Atlantic are united in the objective of improving the protection of personal data whilst creating conditions for economic growth – and we do not believe that these are mutually exclusive goals. That’s why the UK is leading the European data protection debate, and seeking a flexible global solution that will be good for citizens and good for business, in cooperation with our European and American partners.
In the meantime, for years to come, people might judge me for my enjoyment of Trollope… but according to Rosen, until we find technological solutions that give us more control over privacy, set expiration dates on our data, and enable good regulation to be enacted effectively, I’ll just have to admit to it with pride.
I think as time goes on and the generations that went directly from the teat to Twitter become adults and middle age, and eventually old, it won’t matter (for the most part) what kind of digital past they have. As a cohort, their once bragged about indiscretions and (to us) compromising online photos will be so widespread it will create a new normal and none of them will blink an eye or feel a minute of shame. In some ways this could be a good thing, shame after all is not a particularly productive emotion. On the other hand, fear of shame is often the only thing standing between civility and a Jerry Springer guest.