2 The life of data (Data and/on Death) 

In 2021, I was working for a non-profit organisation that helps people who died alone and have no family or friends. The organisation works with the Seoul city government and holds a joint funeral for them. If people have a right to live like human beings during their lives, shouldn't the ‘right to die with dignity’ also be natural? With this idea, the organisation aims to change society's perception of people who died lonely. It makes people’s last path not alone even though their lives were lonely. 

My job was arranging and typing the data about people who passed away in an excel file. I had to look through every document related to their death - police reports, autopsy results from the doctor, and personal data from the district office. As I filled in the blanks of the table, I began to see this data as a social issue. Every single life should not be ignored or marginalised but should be protected by the nation. In that sense, I realised the meaning of performing a ritual ceremony for death and making a grave. It is not just a cultural custom to keep. I think it is a polite way of making them achieve dignified death and life after. So the grave is the place of remembering life and death, living and passing. This data related to individual life and death made me think about how the government sees the socially vulnerable members, and how our social fabric system is loose. Our society needs associativity to see and analyse the data with a different view. 

Then, in the case of data, how could we deal with the issue of remembering the vanishment? Is there a ceremony or a monumental place for the data loss? 

How does data maintain its life leaving long traces? Have you thought about the lifespan of data? I often encounter pop-ups that require data access from websites, which is very annoying. Once companies hold the user’s information for a certain period and then discard it after it expires - this is the principle. However, it is hard to believe companies’ promises regarding tracking and data protection. Normally, the Internet grows up on the cookie crumbs we've dropped unconsciously, and companies roll these crumbs to make customised services. They are building their advertising empire with these crumbs! If I allowed websites to access my information, it would spread to their partners so fast. And Imagine how quickly I would get an ad call from an insurance company or phone carrier. So I think the life of data is very tenacious. Even unused or deleted (strictly speaking, overwritten by 0s or random codes) data can be revived later on as needed. Then, isn’t there no such thing as complete death? 

By the way, I heard about an interesting service that cares for personal data after death. As you know, personal data and photos keep following after one’s passed away unless someone deletes the accounts. This service allows the digital legacy to be managed by families, relatives, and close friends. Or they can request to delete the account to protect their digital identity. Not only the information of the living but also this of the deceased should be protected. Because the abandoned or rarely used profiles easily become prey for fraud. I would be so sad if I found an account of my dear departed friend or family stolen. Then, we might need digital wills for this while alive. (If you’re interested in this topic, read this blog post; https://adguard.com/en/blog/digital-afterlife-death-tech.html ) 

Oh, sorry that I kept talking about depressing topics. I will change the subject to ‘memory.’ I have thought we are increasingly relying on memories from digital devices. Sometimes I recall the memories with some photos on my mobile. And I use an auto-fill function on mobile, so I don't need to memorise my personal data all the time, for example, mobile numbers, account numbers, credit card numbers, IDs and passwords. I guess we’re becoming digital dementia. Besides, a lot of parts of our daily lives depend on digital memory, such as mobile application, dash cam, pet cam, thermal imaging camera (especially during the pandemic). 

Do you think digital memory is a complete record? Data collected from digital devices have been regarded as objective and scientific. And these data gain reliability easily because people believe it even if they don’t know where this information comes and goes. The more critical thing is the way we treat and use this isn’t always objective. People easily fall into the trap of fake news and share this with their friends. Some loose-woven presumptions make solid political opinions. And some people believe in their feelings of fear rather than statistics. 

Consider that the human body is made up of numerous cells and tissues, which form body organs. And what we see is adapted by our perception. The digital image, which is just a piece or pile of memory of a digital organism, consists of thousands of minute pixels, which is noise. Operation of the imaging processor inside the camera corrects these noises to be close to the image humans actually recognise. So the data does! With single data itself, it is hard to know the truth of events or the value of the data. I think the more important thing is focusing on how we analyse the data collection and what kind of questions can be drawn. As if I was convinced that every human has the right to die with dignity by the death data collection I mentioned earlier.