Delete Part II

Chapter 5: Potential Responses

In this chapter, Mayer-Schonberger discusses six possible responses designed to diminish the challenges given to us by digital memory. They include digital abstinence, information privacy rights, digital privacy rights infrastructure, cognitive adjustment, information ecology, and perfect contextualization.

Mayer-Schonberger mentions that two of the six responses have been implemented enough to produce qualitative data, but the remaining four must be tested in order to be recognized as viable solutions to thwart the effects of digital memory upkeep.

1. Digital Abstinence
Mayer-Schonberger argues that being more conscious of the personal information we publish on the web is one of the key steps to preventing an “enduring digital memory.” He uses the example of Stacy Snyder and Andrew Feldmar to emphasize the point that abstaining from publishing harmful information will protect your digital identity.

2. Information Privacy Rights
For this response, Mayer-Schonberger illustrates how a list of personal rights can protect an individual’s information online and secure their digital space. “In its most basic form, information privacy rights give individuals a right to choose whether or not to share information. If somebody obtains personal information by snooping on others without their consent, [they] would violate the law and be subject to punishment”(135).
Mayer-Schonberger goes on to say that information privacy rights have two clear advantages over digital abstinence. First, individuals would be have the support of a legal system to control and monitor their information. And second, limitation rules ensure that “information is not being reused and shared except with individual consent”(138).

3. Digital Privacy Rights Infrastructure
Mayer-Schonberger points out that it’s not just individuals who must exercise control over digital memory, but also copyright protection programs such as DRM. He states, “ the principle of what is often called digital rights management (DRM) is simple: information—in the context of copyright, these are music, movies, games, digital books, but in the context of forgetting, this could be any personal information..”(144).

4. Cognitive Adjustment
For this response, Mayer-Schonberger suggests that it is possible for humans to develop cognitive adjustments to deal with digital remembering. Instead of changing the interface of digital memory, he states that “the necessary change takes place in our minds”(155).

5. Information Ecology
By viewing information in an ecological perspective, we can filter what is and what is no longer purposeful information. Mayer-Schonberger suggests that when information is no longer needed, it should be discarded. However, we encounter several problems with this response from politics and personal records.

6. Perfect (full) Contextualization
“What if digital memory does not comprise too much information, but too little?” Mayer-Schonberger illustrates how perfect contextualization acts as an extension of cognitive adjustment. The idea is simple, comprehensive information is available to everyone. He states, “to achieve perfect contextualization we would need a technological infrastructure that collect, stores, and retrieves information about our lives much more comprehensively than exists today”(164).