My point is that collective "worth" is not the only value that people may wish to judge these actions by. People may have strong individual reactions to what's

My point is that collective "worth" is not the only value that people may wish to judge these actions by. People may have strong individual reactions to what's being saved. If an Interstate is built through my backyard, or a cemetery or whatever it might be worth it, but that doesn't mean that people directly affected won't try to argue that the worth of a project does not necessarily justify it. If -- as a teenager -- I wrote something that I'm now embarrassed by (which I did), or if -- totally unbeknownst to me -- some unflattering pictures of me show up on Facebook (which have), I may not wish for them to be saved, but for them to disappear, along with the day, week or month of my life that produced them. And frankly, I'm not mocking anyone. I'm trying to ask a question which I think it's totally fair to ask, who "owns" user generated data? Does the act of putting it out there make it effectively public domain, or can I, when cooler heads and soberer minds prevail, choose to recall it?