I’ve talked about “the right to be forgotten”, which
sounds more like a privilege to me, in several posts recently. But the news today about the Ashley-Madison
hack adds more dimension to it, suddenly. (Why does the character “Ashkey
Wilkes” from “Gone with the Wind” come to mind?)
I covered some of the news by updating my post on the
Internet Safety blog July 20, 2015 already.
Wired, for openers, says we just shouldn’t play along
(link ). Here’s a typical story from
Vox-affiliate, The Verge, link.
But there is a risk to “online reputation”, partly
because some names on the site may have been erroneous or originally entered
maliciously. For many people, the “fear”
will be overblown, but online reputation companies are sure to jump on it.
To put this in perspective, remember it’s easy to look
up aggregate information on almost anyone from subscription data bank companies
that cull information off public records and maybe credit reports. It’s easy to
look up any home address online and find out if the owner has paid property
taxes. I don’t do this, because I really
don’t want to know. Maybe if I were to
hire someone, or get into a “real” relationship, I would have to, but this
begins to sound like soap opera (“Days of our Lives” particularly, and
thankfully, I have no reason to be jealous of anyone).
One problem for search engine companies comes up if in
fact the “hackers” really do spill a lot of “bad information” (e.g. “The Sum of
All Fears”) on a lot of people, who could include those maliciously or
accidentally entered and not actually involved in adultery. If the information
is put on normal websites or blogs (like on Blogger or Wordress) there won’t be
any practical way to know if the information came from the illegal or criminal
hack. For some people, there won’t be any
way to litigate, although I imagine defamation lawyers are playing glee with
this now. Divorces lawyers look forward
to feasting (particularly in states with “alienation of affection” laws like
North Carolina). It could add fuel to
the idea that “the right to forgotten” needs to apply in the US and give France
some leverage in trying to push this on us (although I personally disagree).
Ordinary citizens are finding that the Internet
provides new ways for potential “enemies” or “adversaries” to hold them
accountable for “what they didn’t earn”, in ways outside the reach of the
normal legal system. Our whole idea of
personal accountability and morality broadens out. We’re finding out what “karma” really means.
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