From the Useful Spam Department : I got an advertisement from a robot at “complianceonline.com” that works for a business addressing the problem of data retention on the web from the corporate point of view.
We've all read plenty about the dangers of teenagers publishing their party revels only to find themselves rejected by a university snooping on their Facebook account. But it's important to remember that the same issues affect business and government as well, as the complianceonline robot points out:
“Avoid Documentation ‘Time Bombs’
“Your own communications and documents can be used against you.
“Lab books, project and design history files, correspondence including e-mails, websites, and marketing literature may all contain information that can compromise a company and it's regulatory compliance. Major problems with the U.S. FDA and/or in lawsuits have resulted from careless or inappropriate comments or even inaccurrate opinions being “voiced” by employees in controlled or retained documents. Opinionated or accusatory E-mails have been written and sent, where even if deleted, still remain in the public domain where they can effectively “last forever”.
“In this electronic age of My Space, Face Book, Linked In, Twitter, Blogs and similar instant communication, derogatory information about a company and its products can be published worldwide, and “go viral”, whether based on fact or not. Today one's ‘opinion’ carries the same weight as ‘fact’.”
This is all pretty predictable and even banal, but then we get to the gem: the company offers a webinar on “Electronic Eternity”. I like the rubric. I think “Electronic Eternity” is one of the things we should question. Do we really need to accept that it is inevitable? Whose interest does it serve? I can't see any stakeholder who benefits except, perhaps, the archeologist.
Perhaps everything should have a half-life unless a good argument can be made for preserviing it.