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RSA Thursday – Delete: the virtue of forgetting in the digital age

19th Nov 2009; 13:00

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Join Viktor Mayer-Schonberger as he presents an account of the challenges we face in a world where our digital traces are saved for life.

Chair: Kevin Anderson, blogs editor, The Guardian

Google remembers everything we’ve searched for and when. Potentially humiliating content on Facebook is enshrined in cyber-space for future employers to see. The written word made it possible for us to remember across generations and time, yet now digital technology is overriding our natural ability to forget. Should the past be ever-present, ready to be on-screen at the click of a mouse?

Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, director of the information and innovation policy research centre at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, explains why current information rights and privacy fixes can’t help us, and proposes a simple solution - expiration dates on information.