At some point, all of us have searched for our own name on the Internet to check what information search engines have stored about us. This practice has a name, egosurfing, and it serves, among other things, to check the impact of our digital footprint.
Our trail on the Internet is vast, and the digital footprint we have been accumulating for decades is so wide and deep that it can end up having a very negative impact on many aspects of our real life. The emerging digital technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution have accustomed us to ways of interacting with the digital environment that have created an enormous dependence on a medium that is not private at all and that is in the hands of a few technology corporations that see us as their product: we search the web for what we consume and pay for it through digital transactions in ecommerce hubs, we get informed and voice our opinions through online channels and media, we socialize by viewing and posting links, photos and videos of our daily lives on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat, and we enjoy the thousands of possibilities in countless free applications.
But behind this free digital paradise lies a terrifying truth: we are the product. Nothing comes for free. We are not truly aware that the data about our digital actions is systematically collected, stored and indexed by the data centers of these technology corporations through different tracking techniques: the orderly recording and classification that search algorithms perform of each of our virtual appearances, the cookies that the browser sends and stores on our device as a reflection of our activity, the wall of content we have been generating and sharing for years on social networks, or the collection of private information of economic interest on the device where we have installed each free application, ranging from the contacts in our address book to our location history.
The business model adopted by most online services is based on offering free functionality in exchange for monetizing the user’s audience or data through personalized advertising. In this way, the digital footprint of our actions and published data is permanently recorded, and it can take on special importance and repercussion at certain moments and in certain decisions of our private life.
The Right to Be Forgotten
In the face of this increasingly normalized reality, within this new era of Artificial Intelligence, we no longer know the magnitude of the digital footprint and, above all, the scope of the use that Machine Learning algorithms based on Neural Networks are making of it. Nor do we know how this use will evolve, or whether in the near future this footprint may end up generating biases against us that are unthinkable today.
Therefore, within the Technohumanism Manifesto, we join in declaring as one of the fundamental rights, one that has existed for some time, the “Right to Be Forgotten”, which has become a declaration of such importance that administrations have incorporated it into a special chapter of their data protection regulations.
The Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (Spanish Data Protection Agency) defines it as “The right to request, under certain conditions, that links to your personal data not appear in the results of an Internet search made by your name”. It includes “…the right to limit the universal and indiscriminate dissemination of personal data on general search engines when the information is obsolete or no longer has relevance or public interest, even if the original publication is legitimate (in the case of official gazettes or information protected by freedom of expression or freedom of information)”.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has also set a precedent in this regard when it recognized, in a 2014 ruling, the right of citizens to ask a search engine to delete links to personal information in their digital footprint that is no longer relevant, even if it is true and public. It should be remembered, however, that freedom of expression and information limits this right to anonymous individuals. Public figures may only request the removal of news, comments and opinions when these have clearly amounted to a crime.
It is worth noting, for example, that Google has received in Spain alone over the last five years almost 80,000 requests, and more than 800,000 across Europe. They come from people who have asked for links and references belonging to their digital footprint that they consider inadequate or irrelevant to be removed, thus exercising their right to be forgotten and to erase their digital footprint.
However, according to Google, requests to remove links are reviewed one by one and in some cases the petitioner is asked for more information. Each of them, moreover, is subject to a “manual” review. Among the most common factors that justify removing an address are the “clear” absence of public interest, sensitive information – sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion and political or trade union affiliation –, content involving minors, and expired convictions or records. There is still no clear mechanism, and in many cases it takes quite a long time for Google to end up removing the requested information.
Removing or Reducing the Digital Footprint as Far as Possible
Beyond legislation and public bodies, there are recommendations through which we can increase and maintain anonymity on the Internet by minimizing the digital footprint of our activities:
- Delete or deactivate all social media, shopping and web service accounts that are no longer used.
- Review the privacy settings of active social profiles. Every one of the platforms where they live offers various options to control the audience that can access your own posts.
- Try to be selective and aware of the content you publish, who it is aimed at and the repercussions it could have later.
- Use protection and anonymity mechanisms such as VPN networks and TOR networks.
- Practice algorithm obfuscation, masking our true preferences by arbitrarily choosing various content that has nothing to do with our reality.
The Internet Society (ISOC) is the only non-governmental, non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to the worldwide development of the Internet, with the specific task of concentrating efforts and actions on particular issues related to the network of networks. It offers an interesting tutorial in which we can review what kind of digital footprint we are leaving and what its possible effects may be.
It is also worth remembering that, from the Technohumanist approach, this and other rights are stated from an ethical point of view, with the Human Being at the center, but in an individual context. It is not the aim of Technohumanism to leave the ethical plane and enter the political one, which pursues the common good and works in the context of the collective.
The main objective of the Technohumanist Movement and of the IANética Project in particular is to develop and deepen this and other Fundamental Rights, through Debate and interdisciplinary collaboration, thereby fulfilling the maxim of uniting Thought with Technology.
Originally published in Spanish on IANética (2020). English version prepared for TecnoHumanismo.
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