"He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past."
There is an issue for me here, in that what is being advocated is the ability to rewrite your own history. In effect erasing those parts that you are able to succesfully argue are no longer relevant. I'm not sure who wins in this scenario. Is it the individual who will be able to limit and remove those aspects of their past that were once public knowledge?
Who will that ability serve?
Joe Bloggs, who received a driving offence at age 14 possibly? Or, more likely, someone wanting to ensure that their current public image isn't tarnished by their past activities? I couldn't possibly think of any number of categories of people/organsiations that would look at this ability with some glee.
cough*politicians*cough.
I think the real issue is that once you're past the point of arguing whether information is accurate and should be in the public domain in the first place, it is not a case of whether you should be able to go back and remove that from the general pool of humanity's knowledge but what recourse you have as to how that information is used.
If I'm refused a job in my forties because I was arrested during a political protest in my twenties (that made the news), is it not better to challenge the use than try and erase the past from view?
One involves a challenge to an authority, the other involves the creation of a lie.
Andrew Goodfellow-Swaap
Senior Information Officer
Nottingham City Council.
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