Action - no words
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French get Foreign Legionaries disease
THE FRENCH have a lot that they'd like to forget - the Second World War, Vietnam, keeping Britain out of the EC - but now it seems that some of them want the right to make us forget huge chunks of the Internet.
According to the BBC, French politicians are a little worried about anonymous people using the world wide web to attack very nice short right-wing politicians who happen to be married to former models.
They are also worried that in the future people will be able to go to various sites and dig up ancient dirt on people and use it against them.
A proposed law in the country would give embarrassed Internet users the option to have old information about themselves deleted, never to be seen again.
The idea is that online and mobile firms to will have to dispose of emails and text messages after an agreed length of time or on the request of the individual concerned.
Divina Frau-Meigs, Professor of American Studies and Media Sociology at the Paris Sorbonne University, thinks the whole thing is a good idea because it would prevent unguarded communications from becoming official record.
A right-to-forget could protect an individual's privacy and stop them from being permanently held to ransom by unguarded actions from their past.
At the moment the only way for a person to overcome bad Internet publicity is by countering it with good material. This seems to only help the wealthy and people with interests in disguising their real personaes.
Companies too are coming under attack from competitors pretending to be disgruntled customers leaving damaging feedback on websites such as Ebay or Amazon.
Of course if the proposed French law was applied in Germany it would have prevented the knowledge that a former member of the Hitler Youth is now the Pope from ever having come to light. µ
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Hello,
I couldn't see much news in this article.
I can understand that privacy in not grasped in the UK anymore as we have cameras filming us in stereo.
The right to edit/ask for deletion of your personal information stored by companies exist since 1978 (or thereabout). It is not only about dirt but also prevents you from being contacted again and again by unscrupulous companies. Under that law, any company making a register should declare it and explain how information will be handled...
If you are interested in knowing more you can read http://www.cnil.fr/english/, the official website of the French Data Protection Agency.
Cheers,
Alban
"Digging up old Dirt...
... is the job of the press isn't it?"
*puff*
What dirt?
I would have thought that the best way to do that is to shut your trap when you're not sure if you want people to remember what you say.
Once upon a time, the Président de la République was not a media muppet. The function had dignity, and the Président would toil away from the cameras. Interviewing the Président was a priviledge granted to few, and his time was precious.
But now we have a media whore who thinks that it is a good idea to govern in front of a microphone. Well, bud, you can't have it both ways. The Internet is NOT going to bend over for the likes of you.
La liberté de nier la droite des personnes de me pardonner ou oublier pas n'est pas dans ma puissance.
Au contraire, comment l'état a-t-il la savoir comment avec quelle horreur et le naturel à la crème de restauration de la crème ici a violée si vous l'aimez?
La liberté est le droit de dire aux gens ce qu'elles ne veulent pas entendre.
L'ennui soit à l'aristocratie qui joue de spéculation jeu au bourgeois!
Tout de suite alley toot sweet, an' the tooter the sweeter!
It is non pants accident where reigns chaos and joy in pubic places.
Vis-à-vis: Pardon mon Fricassée.
mais oui oui oui.
Faux pas and passe encore!
One of my most favouritist meals is Duck à l'Orange, but I don't know how to say that in French.
Right lovely jubbly cunard, eh innit?
... is the job of the press isn't it?
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” 1984 - George Orwell
Not the first time that our daft and luddite politicians try to push such stupid laws aiming at giving them unrestricted censorship powers.
Luckily : these are both anti-constitutional (until now) and technically unfeasible.