Remember Friendster and MySpace? Those social media sites ushered in the age of oversharing more than a decade ago. And stuff you may have (posted) on those sites could still be there. These zombie web pages can haunt people who’d rather have reputation-crushing online photos, video and documents forgotten.
Here in the U.S., most past cyber (transgressions) still roam freely across the Web. Only California allows minors, crime victims and other special cases to request the takedown of content damaging or dangerous to them.
But a European Union court (recently) ruled that people do have the right to have sensitive information about themselves deleted from Google search results. It was a reversal of the court’s earlier stance. And it means certain sites may be (forced) to delete what they called “irrelevant or no longer relevant” data from its results when someone requests it.
Google is understandably unhappy. The company fears that requests for search result deletions from E.U. dwellers will translate into lost ad revenue.
None of these efforts can ever fully (erase) a person’s online past given how much sharing goes on. So think twice before posting your next bong hit selfie. Unless maybe you’re Seth Rogen.
