I’m sure everyone in public office must be paranoid what someone might pull from their Yearbook entries thirty years ago. Now imagine what students of today might have to face in, say, 2048!

Anyone challenging a public official thirty years from now would have access to troves of data, not just on Facebook, but through deep searches using anything from selfies on Instagram, to SnapChat and Twitter that could reveal ‘background’ information. This could involve the precise location where someone was, and corroborated information gleaned from friend’s tagged photos and posts on other platforms. Would it be possible for a court to subpoena  backed-up photos on a Cloud service –just to establish a timeline?

When we teach digital literacy, we tell students to consider the digital trails they leave behind. Brett Kanaugh’s Yearbook entries being parsed by the media, investigators, and late night TV hosts are a lesson for anyone.