‘Reputation bankruptcy,’ and other ideas to protect yourself in a digital world
You’ve got something you want taken offline: a drunken Facebook photo, an ill-advised blog post about your flirtation with Satanism, a frustrated tweet you wish you could take back. As Facebook passes its 500 millionth user, we take a look at new proposals to reduce the threat that we users of the internet pose to ourselves.
George Washington University Law Professor Jeff Rosen has chronicled some of the newest proposals for protecting, and erasing, your online reputation. He joins us to talk about his recent piece, “The Web Means the End of Forgetting,” in this week’s New York Times Magazine.
And Jonathan Zittrain, of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, shares one possible solution to cleaning up the trails we leave behind us online: Reputation Bankruptcy.
The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.