The Right to be Forgotten

[Ethics]

For some background, this is what got me started on this thought process:

It's a fantastic thing to think on. Do you have the right to be forgotten? How much should the world indefinitely know about you?

As an American, I've been surrounded by this culture in which individuals are constantly plagued or vindicated by their pasts. It's not uncommon for potential employers to run extensive background checks on people, investigating far beyond work related information. Social media has only made this easier as time progresses and it becomes all the more common.

I had never considered the application of such extensive information in war time scenario, though, which definitely makes me question as to where we draw the line.

What is your take on this? Do we actually have a right to be forgotten? Why or why not?

 

[Soulcorruptor]

Before getting to far into this, as a response to this post I would honestly like to hear your opinion since you are asking others of the same. Now as class is about to start for me soon I have not watched the video but will later and may edit my post accordingly. So I will do my best to answer each point in a decent manner right now.

It's a fantastic thing to think on. Do you have the right to be forgotten? How much should the world indefinitely know about you?

I think this all depends on the case in which we are asking the right to be forgotten for. Since you mentioned later as a war time scenario if it's say a major war crime here probably not. It may be more on the extreme side of this example here but let's say you were responsible for issuing and carrying out a said action of killing an entire village just because it was suspected of or did harbor enemy troops. For killing countless innocents, I don't think that should be forgotten. Now we go with a similar situation say again you are in the middle of a village yet this is due to unforeseen circumstances and a fight broke out, and your actions caused a building to be destroyed that just had some innocent people in it. To this I would say yes, and the reason behind this is sole more on intent. With one example the intent was pure evil so to say and we did not care about our actions, with the other one we did care about our actions yet had unforeseen circumstances.

As an American, I've been surrounded by this culture in which individuals are constantly plagued or vindicated by their pasts. It's not uncommon for potential employers to run extensive background checks on people, investigating far beyond work related information. Social media has only made this easier as time progresses and it becomes all the more common.

This case I feel is a bit more complicated especially since it's social media, and that's just now as you have made a point of the "ease" in which information about a person can be obtained. Unless it's a criminal record and a felon at that(since you need to fill that out on your application in the first place.) I don't think social media should be used to judge a person for the work environment. Your work life and personal are two separate things and should remain as such. While at work conduct yourself accordingly and treat your workplace with respect, so don't bash it and what not. However when your not working and want to say you had a shitty day because of work and happen to name the company and say it's bad in it's handling of policies I feel like that shouldn't be held against you. It may be a bit hypocritical of me to think like that but that's just how I feel, work life and social life are two separate things.

What is your take on this? Do we actually have a right to be forgotten? Why or why not?

So to wrap it up I kind of go both ways on this in a case by case content of the event. If it's something real stupid and hey you goofed then yes let it be dropped and forgotten. However if it's of a more serious nature that has a bigger impact on what can and might happen and also call into question the proper ability to do something or if you should/can do it I think not.

 

[Dionysos]

It saddens me that people can’t simply live free and be nice, respectful people. Common sense would be lovely too, but what I call common sense isn’t particularly common at all, shamefully.

Humans exist. Why are people embarrassed about that?

Why should they have to hide what they get up to in their spare time (so long as it is legal, etc) on social media simply because they fear being judged by employer-stalkers?

I’m not saying that work and life should always be separate, as that would be very rude as it would include never talking to any colleagues as human beings. We’d just become robots working on a machine if we did away with that entirely. I just don’t think that employers stalking an employee’s social life, etc, is good practice. It happens, but I don’t think it is right.

I’ll keep this post to the mundane. I’ve not yet met anyone who is responsible for burning down a village or anything. I’ll assume that most people who have a dark past have only a very small shadow, but one that nibbles them nonetheless.

Okay…

People do things. People change. People then do other things.

It’s not a difficult thing to grasp. Why, then, do people have such a hard time with it? That puzzles me, and I’d like to personally contemplate that more.

A person’s past does not make him or her a hypocrite later in life. It makes the person human. A human who has experienced one thing at one time in life and then, later on with greater (or simply different) knowledge and reflection, has decided that doing things differently or behaving differently is now the right thing.

People aren’t born holding all of the opinions that they will later hold in life. People’s experiences shape them, and continue to shape them until the day that they die. If you grow up in an area where your friends happen to be into Pokémon (and so you are too), and then you like visiting the travelling circus when it comes to your local area (but are naïve to things like animal harm, since you are young and are simply curious about the animals), then if you were to later on apply for the RSPCA or any animal organisation and have that held against you then that is truly, truly, hilariously, and irredeemably stupid.

Maybe ‘forgetting’ about a person’s history is the wrong way of looking at things. A person’s past can be important, and it can shape a person, but so does the present, and other aspects of that person’s past than the aspect causing concern. If you want to be nosy and check in on a person, then consider that person’s entire life and existence as a whole if you want honest truth and fair judgement, and perhaps reassurance. You won’t be able to find everything, and perhaps if you are thinking about looking into that then you should realise that you are looking too much into a person.

Perhaps if people were to look into a person’s history for some reason or another then they should instead consider what they find in the context of the particular time in that person’s life. If they lack that context, and have to ask the person, then that might be the next step, but then hopefully they’ll realise that it is sort of personal and not really appropriate in a professional context.

To loosely paraphrase Heraclitus’ concept… Everything flows, and no person can step in the same river twice. It is not the same river, and it is not the same person.

Should we not remember this, consider it when we meet people, and move on (when appropriate)?