With things shifting around the internet the past year, and also just…Having been on the internet for awhile now, I feel like this saying, while decent as a cautionary measure…May not really hold up past that. Am I being a little naive though?
Is some decade(s) old post of mine from some old forum really still floating around somewhere out there on some random old server chugging along?
I feel like even in the corporate web, a bunch of that old data’s probably been long lost courtesy of costcutting measures and businesses going under.
Unless you have the control on the webpage hosting a content, it’s pretty hard to remove something out of the internet. Even if you do, people may-have back-up or screenshots, then there is place like internet archives where you’d find tons of old websites.
That said, tons of stuff end-up disappearing over-time. Look how many forum have closed down, is myspace still alive ? Recently, the French "Skyrock blog"platform closed down, but all of it’s archive have been given to the French national library so in a few decades, sociologist will have tons of data about the youth of the millenials
Some good practice of digital hygiene include :
Do not use your real name, and change pseudonyms
Beware of photos, at a point mass face recognition will be the norm, so assume you’re not anonymous, Posting a photo after proudly finishing a Marathon or earning a Karate black belt is fine. But if a photo isn’t fine out of context, don’t publish it.
I went looking for old forums I used to frequent, and while the site itself is on the internet archive most of the conversations are lost. Only one or two snapshots a year