Ctrl + Z

A gripping insight into the digital debate over data ownership, permanence and policy“This is going on your permanent record!” is a threat that has never held more weight than it does in the Internet Age, when information lasts indefinitely. The ability to make good on that threat is as democratized as posting a Tweet or making blog. Data about us is created, shared, collected, analyzed, and processed at an overwhelming scale. The damage caused can be severe, affecting relationships, employment, academic success, and any number of other opportunities—and it can also be long lasting. One possible solution to this threat? A digital right to be forgotten, which would in turn create a legal duty to delete, hide, or anonymize information at the request of another user. The highly controversial right has been criticized as a repugnant affront to principles of expression and access, as unworkable as a technical measure, and as effective as trying to put the cat back in the bag. Ctrl+Z breaks down the debate and provides guidance for a way forward. It argues that the existing perspectives are too limited, offering easy forgetting or none at all. By looking at new theories of privacy and organizing the many potential applications of the right, law and technology scholar Meg Leta Jones offers a set of nuanced choices. To help us choose, she provides a digital information life cycle, reflects on particular legal cultures, and analyzes international interoperability. In the end, the right to be forgotten can be innovative, liberating, and globally viable.

Ctrl + Zargues powerfully that we should all take the advice of Googles Eric Schmidt and be more careful about how we interact with one another online., [A] groundbreaking comparative work., The legal and moral implications require a rethinking of much of what we take for granted, and Jones is plugged in to many of the conversations., Meg Leta Jones is the preeminent American scholar of the Right to Be Forgotten, a concept born in Europe. This fascinating book is a must-read for anyone, American or European alike, vexed about what to do (or not to do) about the persistence of memory online., The so-called 'right to be forgotten' has become a firestorm of controversy in todays Digital Age. Should individuals have a right to have data about themselves deleted or made more obscure? With great thoughtfulness and insight, Meg Leta Joness Ctrl + Z explores the right to be forgotten, avoiding the exaggerations and dispelling the myths that often appear in debates about the issue. Fascinating and accessible, Ctrl + Z addresses all dimensions of the right to be forgottenthe law of different countries, the nature of the technology, and the arguments on each side. The result is a truly unforgettable book that grapples with the right to be forgotten with great nuance and erudition.

Meg Leta Jones is Assistant Professor of Communication, Culture, & Technology at Georgetown University.