The Difficulty In Getting a Machine To Forget Anything

An anonymous reader writes: When personal information ends up in the analytical whirlpool of big data, it almost inevitably becomes orphaned from any permissions framework that the discloser granted for its original use; machine learning systems, commercial and otherwise, end up deriving properties and models from the data until the replication, duplication and derivation of that data can never hoped to be controlled or 'called back' by the originator. But researchers now propose a revision which can be imposed upon existing machine-learning frameworks, interposing a 'summation' layer between user data and the learning system, effectively tokenising the information without anonymising it, and providing an auditable path whereby withdrawal of the user information would ripple through all iterations of systems which have utilized it — genuine 'cancellation' of data.

Comments

How about if we OWN our personal information?

[elwinc]

Imagine if we owned our personal information as a form of intellectual property? Big corporations have gotten pretty good at protecting their intellectual property rights. Maybe it's time for us ordinary folks to own our personal information. Then we could license it to companies for particular uses, but they wouldn't have the right to sell it without our permission.

Re:How about if we OWN our personal information?

[jellomizer]

We do Own our personal information, but we usually sell it in trade of the electronic services you want to use.

You find there is value in Google Internet searching, then your payment is knowing your searches would be part of google marketing,

There is that news website that you don't want to pay for, well those adds will pay for the services.

You don't need to use these consumer services on the internet. So you can keep your personal information to yourself.