32 Mark Washofsky
We're heading toward a world where an extensive trail of information fragments about us will be forever preserved on the Internet, displayed instantly in a Google search. We will be forced to live with a detailed record beginning with childhood that will stay with us for life wherever we go, searchable and accessible from anywhere in the world. This data can often be of dubious reliability; it can be false and defamatory; or it can be true but deeply humiliating or discrediting. We may find it increasingly difficult to have a fresh start, a second chance, or a clean slate. We might find it harder to engage in self-exploration if every false step and foolish act is chronicled forever in a permanent record. This record will affect our ability to define our identities, to obtain jobs, to participate in public life, and more. Ironically, the unconstrained flow of information on the Internet might impede our freedom.’
The seriousness of the problem can be judged by the fact that, in the view of some, it may already be too late to solve it. The technology of digital communication has become so sophisticated and the reach of the cyber-universe has become so pervasive that whatever we call“privacy” may be beyond saving. As long ago as 1999, the chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems was quoted as saying“You already have zero privacy. Get over it.”® Similar sentiments have been attributed to both Mark Zuckerberg , founder and CEO of Facebook, ” and Eric Schmidt , CEO of Google , two websites frequently blamed for assaults upon the privacy of personal data. It would be an exaggeration, of course, to say that all is lost. Governments explore legislative remedies,’ and private organizations stand as watchdogs to guard against Web-based encroachments upon the individual’s private space.'’ The struggle, that is to say, is far from over. Still, those who cherish the value of personal privacy will look upon the situation in the Internet age as dire indeed.: