Dubbed the “digital aging system,” the patent is based on the idea of attaching an “aging timer” to digital data just like the telomere parts in human genome. If the user sets the expiration date of a posting through the digital aging system, the data will disappear without a trace at the preset time. (image credit: www.logmemory.com/marker group)
SEOUL, Korea, Sep 11 (Korea Bizwire) – There is a dictum in the information technology industry that digital data never die once created. This is true because data, no matter how many times you press the “delete” button in your file explorer screen and send the file to the trash can, reside somewhere in your computer. With a new technology patented by an unlikely inventor, however, this is no more.
Dubbed the “digital aging system,” the patent is based on the idea of attaching an “aging timer” to digital data just like the telomere parts in human genome. If the user sets the expiration date of a posting–either text or image–through the digital aging system, the data will disappear without a trace at the preset time.
The technology has been patented by Lee Kyung-ah, an elementary school teacher. Snura Inc., the patent rights holder, said it will complete commercialization of the technology by the year’s end. According to Lee, she was motivated to create the technology by her pupils who complained they were hurt emotionally by postings they themselves uploaded to haunt back years later.
Once the technology is commercially available, those individuals who have posted so many photos, videos, replies, and retweets and later regretted to having done so can get a reprieve. But some others said the benefits would be much beyond that.
Jeon Jae-ho, president of Snura, the digital aging system patent holder, said, “With this technology, so many companies can save their server space by automatically deleting junk data. Within Korea alone, the market size for digital aging would be 1 trillion won and worldwide including patent royalties it may exceed 100 trillion won going forward.”
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