Should Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., as well as companies such as Alphabet Inc. and Apple Inc., have the power to decide what happens to our data after our deaths?
In 2012 a 15-year-old girl died in Berlin after being hit by a subway train. Her bereaved parents asked Facebook to turn over her private messages in hopes of understanding whether her death was a suicide or an accident.
Modern-day societies have many rituals and customs for handling the dead’s physical remains but no established practices to deal with digital ones. Öhman argues that “the data we leave behind upon death can be regarded as nothing less than an informational corpse.” Öhman says large tech companies’ possession of deceased user data is a collective problem, because they would own “a truly global archive of human behavior,” constituting the historical artifacts of generations of users. In these companies’ servers, they would have the data patterns of entire populations of people and the documentation of contemporary events and movements such as Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and Arab Spring.
Öhman’s book is the work of an academic, and at times, his attempts to reach the general reader feel clumsy. He asks us to imagine Napoleon Bonaparte’s Facebook messages and feels the need to explain that Karl Marx’s “influence on socialist thought cannot be matched by any other thinker.” Despite all of this, no legislation has meaningfully curbed teen social media use or the tech platforms’ influence over political speech. Yes, they may one day decide to sell or destroy the data of the dead, but they already abuse the data of the living.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Top 10 Stocks to Buy as CPI Inflation Comes Roaring BackStocks Analysis by Investing.com (Jesse Cohen) covering: Gen Digital Inc, State Street Corp, Cleveland-Cliffs Inc, Humana Inc. Read Investing.com (Jesse Cohen)'s latest article on Investing.com
Read more »
22-year-old working to protect young women, children with Angels Protection Inc. nonprofitMeet 22-year-old Mikaila Davis, founder of Angels Protection Inc. The nonprofit’s mission is to provide resources to mothers and their children, young women, and their families between the ages of 13-30.
Read more »
Pixar's Canceled Monsters Inc. Sequel Had a Gut-Wrenching EndingNot the Boo we're used to!
Read more »
City of Chicago sues Glock Inc. over 'facilitating' illegal gun conversionsThe city of Chicago filed a lawsuit Tuesday against gun manufacturer Glock, Inc., over a “switch' that allows its pistols to convert to machine guns.
Read more »
Report: Tyson Foods Inc. Plans to Hire 42,000 More MigrantsSource of breaking news and analysis, insightful commentary and original reporting, curated and written specifically for the new generation of independent and conservative thinkers.
Read more »
Richard Dickson, Gap Inc.’s Million-dollar ManGap Inc. discloses CEO Richard Dickson's compensation.
Read more »