May 15, 2014

If erasing, Google must be sure it is duly authorized to do so, and should keep a public record on the erasers

Sir in principle I agree with John Gapper in that “People do not have the right to erase the web’s memory” May 15. That said, thinking on my own youth, and though I do not remember all my doings very well, I guess there might have been occasions when I was lucky these were not memorized by a web, and so I guess my grandchildren should have the same right.

What I am more concerned about is the possibility that someone else instructs Google or someone in Google takes it upon himself, to erase without authorization one of my memories causing me to suffer from web Alzheimer. And in this respect, were the erasing to start, then Google needs to make sure the erasing is authorized and keep a public record of all erasing going on preferably with an identification of what was erased, a photo or something else. At least in this case John Gapper could have seen that his developer was hiding something. 

And what if there is a photo of two and one wants it erased and the other dearly wants to hang on to the memory?