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UPFront The Right to be Forgotten By Zach Hines We’ve written a lot about how 2014 has been a watershed year for Hong Kong. Take your pick: It’s an awakening of youth; the genesis of an activist generation; the year the rule of law was finally called into question; the first time the countdown to 2047 really resonated. All things considered, 2014 has been one of the most ludicrous years on record: rivalling 1841, when a British man in pantaloons put a flag up somewhere close to where Corner Kitchen Cafe is now in Sheung Wan. But did you know 2014 was also a big year for Hong Kong and the right to privacy This year has been all about editing our search histories. An HSBC banker who was the victim of “extreme trolling” successfully got his negative Google results removed last week. Then there was media mogul Albert Yeung’s libel lawsuit against Google, for autocomplete results that suggested “triad” after you typed in his name. At the same time, our privacy commissioner, after a sustained yet failed campaign to prove that public ID card numbers were private data and thus databases could be bullied into removing the ID numbers of tycoons, has been pressing Google to apply the “right to be forgotten” rule here in Hong Kong. The “right to be forgotten” is a legal concept from Europe (where else) that empowers a person to apply to have old, unflattering data about themselves deleted from the internet. The sci-fi dystopia angle here is obvious, with the landed and lawyered eagerly exercising this right to obliterate publically available information about themselves. But let’s also think about the fuddy-duddy aspect of this concept. Younger people can envisage and even, I posit, feel comfortable with a world where sometimes ridiculous things are posted online. A future in which youthful discretions and follies remain visible on the permanent record is one we need to accept. You’d better believe that the CE of 2047 is going to have some silly Instagram posts he’d rather have forgotten (and perhaps an Occupy support message or two). But by and large, that will be OK with the public, who will have grown up with this kind of thing. Unless, of course, you were an actual triad member. In the wrong hands, this “right to be forgotten” can get ugly faster than a book on fire can hit 451°F. But let’s consider the HK government’s case for it. I can see why they would choose this right of all rights to stand up for, considering that the government has crept silently into the shadows as soon as the going got tough. If the government was behind some of the extreme trolling in Mong Kok, with actual hired human trolls roughing up the scene, perhaps they could sue Google to clean up some of the autocompletes that suggest “Hong Kong government… hired triads.” We also need to consider the possibility that the government is practicing a sustained, extreme trolling of our once-beloved Hong Kong police, who have been left to pick up the pieces of a political disaster while the government exercises its right to be forgotten. In a few years’ time, the police will doubtless desperately like to delete the second half of 2014 from their search history and restore some of their lost honor. Indeed, the right to edit your search results will find many supporters in Hong Kong. Perhaps our privacy commissioner only has our long-term interests at heart. That may be so—but for the younger generation, 2014 is a year not soon to be forgotten, no matter how much you sanitize the search results. Zach Hines is the Editor-in-Chief of HK Magazine. 16 HK MAGAZINE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2014
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Page 1: it's free! God Rest Ye Merry, Leung
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Page 8: THE WEEK SAT SUN THU Friday 12/5 K
Page 12: UPFront HongKabulary Street Talk Mu
Page 18 and 19: Hong Kong The Christmas Carol Book
Page 20 and 21: O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree) Thi
Page 22 and 23: While CY Surfed the Web All Night W
Page 24 and 25: TRADITIONAL ITALIAN FESTIVE MENU Bu
Page 26: Night at the Races Whether you are
Page 29 and 30: Peninsula Pours No trip to Melbourn
Page 31 and 32: Get more out of HK | SHOPPING + TRA
Page 33 and 34: deck the halls with TREEts and holl
Page 35 and 36: Own a piece of HK Magazine history
Page 37 and 38: Time to U Hang out Hung Up On U U H
Page 39 and 40: ARTS Edited by Evelyn Lok evelyn.lo
Page 41 and 42: Exhibitions Hu Yongkai Even if you
Page 43 and 44: New Year’s Eve The Mira Your atte
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Page 47 and 48: Need to Know AMC Cinema, 2265-8933
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Page 51 and 52: HOME Free Will Astrology Rob Brezsn
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