A while back, your Portable Consultant was intrigued to read a BBC story about “Websites ‘keeping deleted photos'” for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it showed a surprising degree of technical knowledge that used to be absent from Internet stories. The method that the researchers used to retrieve photos from social network sites after they had supposedly been deleted is trivial, but used to be beyond the abilities of news organizations to understand. There’s obviously a new generation of reporters and researchers who understand this beat.

Secondly, the heart of the issue as clearly stated by Joseph Bonneau “It’s imperative to view privacy as a design constraint, not a legal add-on”, should be framed and hung on the walls of web designers and managers, not only at social networking sites but also those in the public service, in the private sector, and even corporate intranets.

Cheers,
-pmh