Haunted by Data

In this 2015 talk, Maciej Ceglowski, founder of Pinboard, draws a parallel between the data industry and the troubled nuclear energy industry. Big data, he argues, is full of promise but generates residue that is difficult to dispose of, poses risks for those who store it, and leaves the industry one major incident away from scaring the public off the technology entirely.

Commercial surveillance has grown so quickly that the problem of data disposal has simply been ignored. Ceglowski asks the audience to test their comfort with the data they collect through a thought exercise: what if Nixon was in your data center?

He makes the case for adopting enforceable limits on what data we are allowed to keep. Users who don’t feel they are making an irrevocable commitment will be more open to sharing personal information, creating opportunities that the status quo doesn’t allow. The alternative, he warns, is regulation imposed by legislative fiat after a major breach.