Question

In this unit, you learned how historians use primary sources to study the past. Today, many records of our lives can only be found online. Those records, however, can be lost if their creators choose to delete them. Do we have an obligation to future generations to preserve our online records? If so, how do we balance the preservation of online content with our own right to privacy in the present? If you think we don’t have this obligation, why not?

Answer 1

Answer:

I believe that the preservation of online records, particularly when it comes to personal lives, depends on the importance of the information for future generations, and the right people have to keep certain parts of their lives as private. So I think that the right answer is a middle ground. Certain documents, those that play an important part in defining the future of other generations, and which do not violate the basic right to privacy of a person, should be preserved, but others should be allowed to be taken down from the internet.

In essence, what I think is that a careful evaluation by the owner of the documents must be done, balancing what is important as historical data, and the basic right to preserve certain types of information from public knowledge. So one way to do this would be by removing those documents, or pieces of information, that directly link the information to the person, leaving only that which is absolutely necessary for future information´s sake.

Answer 2

Yes, we have an obligation to keep records preserved in a secured file.