4 - Personal Pasts

Summary

This chapter explains how Alphabet is influencing the construction and experiencing of pasts at the personal level. To provide some context, it is first noted that various key players associated with the megacorporation have suggested that privacy is (currently) dead. This death is then posited as being the result of our growing digital dossiers: i.e. the collection and storing of digital traces that can be associated with specific people. Following this, the chapter differentiates between two approaches – one more careful and the other more carefree – that individuals can employ when seeking to manage or account for the recallable pasts that are continuously being created by, and for, themselves. Finally, the chapter’s summary notes that – with specific regard to its impact on our personal pasts – Alphabet’s megacorporate status is not so much illustrated by the fact that many express concern about our growing digital dossiers, as it is by so many appearing to have already accepted that such growth is inevitable, and even desirable.