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mercacona parent
IMHO the constant complaints about losing chats or needing conversation backups aren’t technical problems—they’re social ones. We need to reclaim the freedom to speak with others ephemerally. No one should want all their conversations recorded, yet we’re heading toward the opposite with smart glasses.

Ideally, we’d agree universally: chats saved for one month (the context we can actually remember from a conversation), emails for five years (for administrative control), and conversations never recorded. However, we’ve been manipulated into needing exactly the opposite. Worse yet, we think it’s possible to maintain privacy while transcribing and archiving everything in our minds, making it public.

oezi
I want to be given the choice and I don't want companies or benevolent dictators making such choices for me.

For many people their messenger has replaced the photo album. Its where you have all your life memories such as baby photos, first school day, etc. Forcing those to be deleted just sounds dystopian.

mercacona OP
40 years ago, we weren’t living in a dystopian society –we may be closer now. Back then, most people kept less than 50 photos at home but spent more time with their families, sharing stories and souvenirs.

Companies have taught us to do otherwise for their profit, don’t forget to back up that.

vladms
I would favor freedom over one size fits all "that is good, that is bad". 40 years ago you had no option to make and keep that many pictures.

Even if I would agree with you that people keep too many digital pictures, if someone wants to do it I would also defend their right, because I do not think it is that negative that is worth fighting against.

PS: to put it to the extreme shouldn't we spend any time on hacker news "but spent more time with their families, sharing stories and souvenirs."?...

mercacona OP
You also might let them get some rest and sleep to fix memories ;-)
maerch
Recently, I found my old ICQ chat history from back in the day. It was a joy to go through, sometimes a little cringeworthy, but overall I really enjoyed it. It felt like a time machine taking me 25 years back, helping me reconnect everything with the memories I have.
mmcnl
What I do with my data should be a choice made by ME, and no one else, and definitely not by some uncontrollable entity on the other side of the world.
mercacona OP
Here you speak about your data as if it were rocks you found trekking, but the data we’re talking here isn’t even paper or pictures: it’s digital data you can’t access or backup by yourself.

You definitely need uncontrollable entities all over the world for that data to exist. Somehow you’re doing what some of those entities allow you to do, and some want you to do. That’s my point.

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