Privacy on the web - does everything online last forever?

Last week's New York Times magazine ran an excellent article about the issue of internet reputation ("The End of Forgetting").  The author, Jeffrey Rosen, is a law professor at George Washington University and a frequent contributor to the Times magazine. The article tells some outrageous stories about people who suffered because of information about them online. It also discusses some possible technological solutions.  I was especially intrigued by the idea of information that expires.  An encrypted form is posted, and after a specified date, that source file is no longer readable.  Of course, if someone can see it (before it disappears), then there is going to be some way that they can make an unencrypted copy, but at least the original will be gone.

I tend to agree with the conclusions of the author:

Our character, ultimately, can’t be judged by strangers on the basis of our Facebook or Google profiles; it can be judged by only those who know us and have time to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses, face to face and in context, with insight and understanding. In the meantime, as all of us stumble over the challenges of living in a world without forgetting, we need to learn new forms of empathy, new ways of defining ourselves without reference to what others say about us and new ways of forgiving one another for the digital trails that will follow us forever.

However, I would also like to point out that internet reputation cuts both ways and those who use online data against others may damage their own reputations.  This article cites an example in which Millersville University School of Education denied a teaching degree on completely inappropriate grounds.  Ultimately, that sort of intolerance will damage the reputation of the intolerant.  I would argue that Millersville is already hurting.

Another example is provided by the recent story about Shirley Sherrod, who discovered that there is little privacy in today's world when an excerpt from a videotape of her speech to a local NAACP chapter was posted by Andrew Brietbart (it's still there).  After a highly publicized episode in which it was revealed that the tape was presented out of context, and Ms. Sherrod was fired and rehired, Shirly Sherrod came out looking pretty good, and the reputation most damaged by the entire incident is that of Andrew Brietbart.  In a world where nothing is forgotten and much is seen, mudslingers are easily recognized by the mud on their hands.