That’s a fairly obvious point, but for today’s installment we have a new level of “should” stupidity.
Delete should mean delete.
I do not disagree. However, having the vapors when delete does not mean delete is more than a bit overwrought, especially for someone who “has been recognized by Forbes as one of America’s top 200 lawyers and by Fortune as one of the most creative people in business. His privacy cases have recovered over $1.5 billion for consumers nationwide. “
Apparently, ChatGPT has been ordered by the courts to preserve all logs, including those of conversations that users have deleted. While this seems like dramatic overreach by the New York Times and the courts, you can’t fix stupid:
Maybe you have asked ChatGPT how to handle crippling debt. Maybe you have confessed why you can’t sleep at night. Maybe you’ve typed thoughts you’ve never said out loud.
Maybe you’re just stupid for typing sensitive things into a computer connected to the cloud. Windows will not even boot without an internet connection. One must assume that every keystroke is reported to somewhere, which has troubling implications for VPNs, but I don’t set corporate policy. I’d switch everyone over to Linux, if I did.
One assumes these are rhetorical questions:
Could Apple preserve every photo taken with an iPhone over one copyright lawsuit? Could Google save a log of every American’s searches over a single business dispute?
At the very least, they assume facts not in evidence. What makes anyone think Apple is not already preserving every photo and that Google is not already saving their logs? I would be shocked if the latter is not the case. They’re a search (and advertising) company; knowing what people search for – and how it changes over time – is valuable information. The former seems unlikely simply due to business model (what value does your photo add?) vs cost (that’s a lot of storage), but I would not be surprised to learn that I’m wrong.
Does WordPress keep the blog posts that never make it past “draft” status? I would assume so, because they’re still around for my later posting pleasure. Does it keep blog posts that I delete? I would assume so, because when people call them up to say, “I deleted half my blog; please restore it”, I’d bet they can do it, if they so desire.
A quote that I read over 40 years ago that I try very hard to live up to:
Live your life such that you are not embarrassed by anything published about you – even if it’s not true.
Richard Bach, Illusions
If you don’t want the world to know you watch porn, don’t visit porn websites. It’s tracked from both sides and probably various places in the middle. If you don’t want the world to know why you can’t sleep at night, don’t post it on the Internet.
Marked Up 