4 ms·

We should just pass a new law called "The right to scrub your public image", which allows you to control how the public perceives you or your company online. If

by ythl 10y ago

We should just pass a new law called "The right to scrub your public image", which allows you to control how the public perceives you or your company online. If someone says something unflattering about you, you can force them to delete it. That's basically what all these European "privacy" laws are amounting to.

CaptSpify 10y ago
I've always kind of thought a better system would be one that lets you assume a new identity. This is a war that laws won't win. Data will get out, and once it's out, it's near impossible to get back. And people do make mistakes that shouldn't haunt them for the rest of their lives. A better system is one that lets you disassociate with that data.
- Cerium 10y ago
  Can you imagine the New Identity fraud!
  - CaptSpify 10y ago
    This is a very good point. This is more of a distant idea that I've had, rather than a fully fledged out one, so I'm sure there are plenty of pitfalls that I haven't thought of. Couldn't identity fraud be better handled if we had a system in place for it though? "Oh, my identity was stolen. Time to get a new one!"
- peeters 10y ago
  A restaurant could do exactly that. If the negative publicity for something they did only a couple of years ago is too much for them, they could change their name in a heartbeat. Instead, what they want is to selectively groom what the internet "remembers" about them. Remove the bad, keep the good.
  - a_humean 10y ago
    There is a local upmarket curry house near me that is quite good and has been around for nearly 5 years winning plenty of local awards for food and service, but on TripAdvisor about 1/5 of the reviews refer to a steak house that was at the same address before this curry house opened. They did not get good reviews and didn't pass health inspections. Even though the curry house changed the owner, name, management, waiting staff, chefs, food sourcing, decor, and menu the reviews are still tied to the address. Fortunately their newer reviews are so glowing that they still get over 4 stars average and their front window is covered in plaques of their awards and their most recent 5/5 health inspection (in the UK its quite common for restaurants to flaunt their 4/5 or 5/5 health report on their front door as advertising - there is no legal requirement to show it except in the city of Hull where now almost every restaurant now has at least 4/5 rating as a consequence given the death sentence that a something below 3/5 represents).
- goda90 10y ago
  It'd be pretty hard to get the new identity without revealing that you are in fact changing from identity X to identity Y. Because if that tidbit gets out, an algorithm can easily reassociate all the data of identity X with identity Y.
halflings 10y ago
The EU's privacy laws are much broader than the "right to be forgotten" (which do not apply to public figures anyway, as Google has shown in the past). When a disgruntled ex publishes a page saying you have a bunch of STDs[1], or a company crawls your social media info and starts using it to market some product without your conscent, and these are the first things your cutomers (and/or friends) see when they google you... you're happy takedown requests are a thing and there are laws to protect you.
panzagl 10y ago
How does a legal action involving a public business have anything to do with privacy? This isn't someone trying to take down embarrassing vacation photos from a FB page, this is a business trying to hide their misdeeds that were significant enough to be reported on in the first place.

by ythl 10y ago

CaptSpify 10y ago

I've always kind of thought a better system would be one that lets you assume a new identity. This is a war that laws won't win. Data will get out, and once it's out, it's near impossible to get back. And people do make mistakes that shouldn't haunt them for the rest of their lives. A better system is one that lets you disassociate with that data.

Cerium 10y ago
Can you imagine the New Identity fraud!
- CaptSpify 10y ago
  This is a very good point. This is more of a distant idea that I've had, rather than a fully fledged out one, so I'm sure there are plenty of pitfalls that I haven't thought of. Couldn't identity fraud be better handled if we had a system in place for it though? "Oh, my identity was stolen. Time to get a new one!"
peeters 10y ago
A restaurant could do exactly that. If the negative publicity for something they did only a couple of years ago is too much for them, they could change their name in a heartbeat. Instead, what they want is to selectively groom what the internet "remembers" about them. Remove the bad, keep the good.
- a_humean 10y ago
  There is a local upmarket curry house near me that is quite good and has been around for nearly 5 years winning plenty of local awards for food and service, but on TripAdvisor about 1/5 of the reviews refer to a steak house that was at the same address before this curry house opened. They did not get good reviews and didn't pass health inspections. Even though the curry house changed the owner, name, management, waiting staff, chefs, food sourcing, decor, and menu the reviews are still tied to the address. Fortunately their newer reviews are so glowing that they still get over 4 stars average and their front window is covered in plaques of their awards and their most recent 5/5 health inspection (in the UK its quite common for restaurants to flaunt their 4/5 or 5/5 health report on their front door as advertising - there is no legal requirement to show it except in the city of Hull where now almost every restaurant now has at least 4/5 rating as a consequence given the death sentence that a something below 3/5 represents).
goda90 10y ago
It'd be pretty hard to get the new identity without revealing that you are in fact changing from identity X to identity Y. Because if that tidbit gets out, an algorithm can easily reassociate all the data of identity X with identity Y.

halflings 10y ago

The EU's privacy laws are much broader than the "right to be forgotten" (which do not apply to public figures anyway, as Google has shown in the past). When a disgruntled ex publishes a page saying you have a bunch of STDs[1], or a company crawls your social media info and starts using it to market some product without your conscent, and these are the first things your cutomers (and/or friends) see when they google you... you're happy takedown requests are a thing and there are laws to protect you.

panzagl 10y ago

How does a legal action involving a public business have anything to do with privacy? This isn't someone trying to take down embarrassing vacation photos from a FB page, this is a business trying to hide their misdeeds that were significant enough to be reported on in the first place.