The article in the url below explores a topic I have written about previously (see Strategic CSR – Facebook), but continues to fascinate as the amount of data we generate and post online grows exponentially:
"Every minute, people enter more than 3.8 million Google search queries, send more than 188 million emails and swipe through Tinder more than 1.4 million times, all while being tracked by various forms of digital surveillance. We produce so much data that some philosophers now believe personhood is no longer an equation of body and mind; it must also take into account the digital being."
This digital trove is being stored somewhere. The question the article grapples with is, who does it belong to after we die?
"When we die, we leave behind informational corpses, composed of emails, text messages, social media profiles, search queries and online shopping behavior."
Let this statistic sink in for a minute:
"… assuming its continued existence — Facebook could have 4.9 billion deceased users by the century's end."
And, it is not only a question for the present. The article also suggests we have a responsibility to future generations to preserve the data we generate:
"The aggregate data of the dead on social media represents an archive of significant humanitarian value — a primary historical resource the likes of which no other generation has left behind. … Then, in the future, people can use them to learn about the big, cultural moments that played out online, like the Arab Spring and the #MeToo movement."
The article explores the state of the law about privacy in the U.S., for public and private figures, and at the state and federal level:
"In the case of public figures, … their images are protected [at the state level] by posthumous publicity rights for a certain period of time. In California, it's up to 70 years after death; in New York, as of December 2020, it's 40 years post-mortem. … Currently, United States federal law does not recognize the dead's right to privacy."
All questions, of course, that companies like Facebook must be wrestling with, but in private and therefore without any oversight.
Take care
David
David Chandler
© Sage Publications, 2020
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The Contest Over Our Data After We Die
By Adrienne Matei
July 25, 2021
The New York Times
Late Edition – Final
ST10
