'Cyber undertaker' settles online assets

Right to be forgotten emerges as hot potato in US, EU

By Park Jin-hai, Kwon Ji-youn, Yoon Sung-won

The ability to forget is said to be a gift from God ― not anymore.

A female singer was embroiled in a scandal when web-cam footage of a naked teenage girl surfaced on the web. Although she claimed the woman in the video was a lookalike, the video spread fast with her name on it anyway.

This happened three years ago. And yet, if a person web-searches the singer, online search engines all too smartly reveal "body cam" next to her name. The video is carried to and shared with others, and people reproduce the content by adding their own comments or thoughts.

In this digitalized world, it seems increasingly difficult ― close to impossible ― to forget anything. Words or images might fade in one's memory, but they can still circulate through online networks, haunting the person, even after his or her death.

This happens to average Joe and Jane, too.

When Park, now a 29-year-old housewife, was a college student four years ago, she liked to visit clubs with her friends to dance. She would sometimes be invited on stage for dance competitions, winning on-the-house drinks or side dishes.

Park said she is unable to visit clubs with her friends after marriage. But she was shocked when her sister-in-law said she found an Internet video showing Park dancing on a club stage. The video seemed to have obviously been taken by someone in the audience, Park said.

"It was embarrassing to explain to my sister-in-law that I loved dancing and I used to visit clubs often," Park said. "Both my sister-in-law and I didn't think it was something I should feel ashamed of. But still, I want to be able to decide whether or not my past is recorded. If I can't, I believe it is a breach of privacy."

Kim Seung-hyun, 30, an employee at a trading company in Seoul, learned it the hard way. He used to post messages on the Internet about personal thoughts and feelings. He wrote complaints about people, like his ex-girlfriend, or other general matters relating to society.

What Kim didn't know was that his future bosses might also be able to see the messages. Soon after Kim started working at the office, almost all of his colleagues and seniors including his boss came to know about his past private life.

"I wanted to start anew when I was employed, escaping my past full of complaints, because I actually have changed," Kim said. "I didn't think that someone I recently got to know could learn about my past so easily through the Internet."

Data protection today

Faced with those issues, data protection ― the so-called right to be forgotten ― has emerged as a hot potato in the European Union and the United States.

The EU beefed up personal privacy rights by proposing a revision to the data protection law, replacing a mere "directive," in January 2012. If approved, it will be applicable to all EU member states beginning next year.

The U.S, maintains an unclear position relating to data protection.

However, California last month became the first state to enact a legislation that provides juveniles with the right to delete content they've posted online. The regulation will take effect in January 2015.

In Korea, lawmaker Lee Noh-geun presented a bill that could give individuals the right to remove what he or she wrote and what is written about him or her online, in February. However, the bill is already facing some obstacles. The problem is that the bill, if enacted, may infringe on one's freedom of speech.

"Imagine that you are a government official, who was detained for a bribery scandal, and major newspapers ran articles alleging that you are the bad guy. Even if you are proven innocent at the highest court, when you type in your name, the innocent verdict probably wouldn't pop up first," said Kwon Hyun-young, a law professor at Kwangwoon University, in a recent forum.

"However, it leaves the question of whether it is right for someone to erase all of the falsely reported news articles about him or her, as if none of it happened. This is closely related to the freedom of speech," he added.

Digital undertakers

Businesses were quick to follow the trend, churning out new services and professions providing online security. A "cyber undertaker," otherwise known as a "digital undertaker," is one who clears all cyber information that have been left behind after one dies or upon the wishes of their clients.

"We help families identify, and record, any relevant digital information including financial assets or liabilities following a demise, and we try to close down, as much as possible, the deceased person's online life," said Mike Donaldson, a digital undertaker based in Australia.

"We identify websites and portals accessed by the deceased and collate a list of those with any passwords available."

He explained that the digital undertaker will then follow any standard website user deletion, and at times will approach other websites and portals to request removal where the individual was not a user but their data was being used.

"The rights to remove or amend any of the deceased's details are provided by an executor to a will or a family legal representative, a court injunction or simply by presenting the right information to the company holding the digital information and following their processes," he said.

Donaldson emphasized, however, that legal obligations must be confirmed and complied with.

He further explained that some data may not be deleted permanently, but may be rendered inaccessible.

"In the case of accessing email accounts, it can be a requirement to get a court order first to get a copy only of the data and then request that the emails are no longer accessible by anyone. This does not mean that the emails are deleted, nor their backups, but at least they will no longer be accessible," he said.

"As for images, you can remove the source file but then you'd have to tackle the other file locations in time before another server trawl picks it up and repeats it," he said.

Donaldson explained that the need for digital undertaking has grown exponentially.

"Even those who thought they weren't online are in fact there," he said. "People running multiple digital lives that include most of their thoughts, images, accounts, assets and interactions means that those who are given the responsibility to close them down on their death are facing an uphill struggle."

According to Donaldson, approximately 85 percent of a deceased's online activity is removed from normal accessibility.

He advised that Internet users think twice before sharing their data virally.

"The secret is to be on top of what you want to publish in the first place and make sure your wishes are clear to those who follow after to allow the likely accessibility of that data to be minimized," he said.