Building the Ultimate Digital Library
Every bit and byte of digital content on the Internet, wherever it is -- from MySpace or Facebook to Blogger.com or Yahoo! Personals, to YouTube or SnapFish and flickr -- is backed up, copied, and stored. And even if the backups are somehow destroyed, your data won't be because in San Francisco, CA, the non-profit Internet Archive is building a digital library of Web sites and other digital cultural artifacts that will be stored forever.
Housed in a SunMD containing some 60 Sun X4500 (Thumper) Open Storage systems, the Internet Archive can be searched using a virtual Wayback Machine, a digital time capsule that enables users to search through the archive's billions of Web pages. Pages there have been saved from as long ago as 1996.
While its real objective is supplying data to researchers and historians, yourpersonal information will also land in the Internet Archive and be available for general consumption. So, even when you think you've deleted that original digital photo of yours, it is not really erased from the Internet...ever.
Anything that you upload to the Internet -- personal photos, blog posts, audition videos, you name it -- can be downloaded or copied by anyone who has or had access to the original Web site. That content can then be passed around and reposted or otherwise used by anyone on the Web indefinitely.
Learn more about the Internet Archive's new Sun MD storage facility
Learn more about the Internet Archive
Read more about Internet Archive
Yours, Mine, and Theirs
When you post photos, videos, and other digital files to sites like MySpace and flickr, you're really storing them on those organizations' servers. Like any good IT manager, they're making regular backups of everything that every user uploads to their sites, every day or even more frequently.
This means that although you may delete an original file, you can't delete any copies made in the course of storing and backing up these servers. And, don't forget that these sites have the contractual right to repurpose your content across their Web sites even though you retain ownership rights.
For instance, Facebook's image ownership statement says, "By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grantÂ…to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise." MySpace has a similar policy.
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Think Twice, Post Once
No matter how old you get, there's one rule of thumb you should always follow: Never post anything online you wouldn't want your mother to see. Camera phones have made it almost too easy to upload photos, so take a moment and decide if you really want a grad school admissions officer, future employer, or even a potential mate to see that racy photo or raunchy video. What seems funny now might be embarrassing, or even damaging, later.
Just as you want only trusted friends and family to view your photos, you want only those same people to be able to take and post digital images and videos of you.
More Public than Private
Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are way more public than they at first seem to be. So, while it seems unlikely that someone you've never met would be interested in your profile, you should assume that strangers are looking at your photo and reading your posts and the forums.
That means you shouldn't don't post anything you wouldn't reveal to a stranger, like your phone numbers, where you live, and where you spend your time. As it says on YouTube's privacy page, you never know who will find your videos or where they'll end up, including YouTube's home page.
You should also check the privacy settings on each account you use, including photo sharing sites like. Make sure that only the people you really trust can view your digital images and read your personal stories. If you do want to make your site, like a blog, accessible to the general public, keep your personal information private.
Know Your True Friends
Some users seem to be running a race to collect the most Facebook or MySpace friends, and trading friend requests with strangers. If you intend to post anything personal, including your hobbies and hangouts or photos and videos that reveal your home, stick with friends you know and trust in the real world. And when someone you don't know or only vaguely remember sends you a friend request, it's perfectly okay to click the "ignore" button.
If you share photos through sites like SnapFish, KodakGallery, and flickr, remember that the people you invite to view your photos can then forward to anyone else the email with the link to your photos.
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