Earlier this week, Google announced its intention to start deleting personal accounts that haven’t been active for more than two years in December. Photos, emails and documents attached to inactive accounts will be eradicated.
The announcement follows a similar one from Twitter last week, which pledged to purge accounts that have been inactive for several years. It caused an uproar among people who don’t want their deceased loved ones’ accounts to be deleted.
With developments like cloud storage, we have developed an expectation, or fantasy, that data is infinite and that our digital spaces will last forever. These policy changes are a reminder of how fragile our digital lives are and how little control we have over their preservation. Read the whole story.
—Tate Ryan-Mosley
A soft electronic skin mimics the way human skin can feel things
The news: A soft electronic skin could allow people with prosthetics to sense pressure and temperature, helping them interact more easily with their environment. It contains sensors to measure external temperature and pressure, which it converts into electrical signals to help the brain differentiate sensations such as a softer touch and a firm handshake, or a strawberry and an apple.
Why it matters: A lack of sensory feedback is one of the main reasons people stop wearing a prosthesis, as it can lead to wearers becoming frustrated. Flexible electronic skins could lead to better prosthetics and could also pave the way for robots that can feel human-like sensations. Read the whole story.
