The bit, a 1 or 0, is the natural unit of information¹⁾. The rate at which data, just a bunch of bits, is created, copied, transferred, and stored has grown rapidly in the past couple of decades. However, there are issues relating to the storage, access, and deletion of this data.

• Not everything is digitized
• Data can be copied easily, and perfectly
• Nothing goes away
• Data can be transferred almost instantly

Although almost everything is in some database somewhere, not everything is. A good example comes from Blown to Bits, Chapter 1. One of the authors had recently gone to the doctor to get some tests done. When the doctor asked him if he had ever had a stress test, and what the results were, he said the results should be in his file. They were, but the results were in his paper file, which the doctor did not have access to.

Computer copy data perfectly. There are checks set in place to make sure that the data is copied perfectly, bit for bit. Network protocols are designed to ensure perfection. This however, creates problems when it clashes with the music and movie industries. See Who owns the ideas? for more information.

A friend of yours makes a post on a social network site about how fun the party at your house was. That post, the arrangement of bits that constitute that post, will likely be saved forever. The social network will create backups and logs about when, where, who, and how it was posted, who was tagged in the post, and where the event happened. And even if your friend tells the social network to delete it, that data probably won't be deleted from everywhere. Once data is shared with anyone, one must assume that the data has been copied and stored elsewhere. This creates problems when your mother is googling your name and this post, archived when Google's robots crawled the internet, pops up. Of course, this is a simplified example, but the same implications exists for when you are applying for jobs, and this post pops up. Or for businesses and financial institutions.

When you call a company for tech support, most likely, the call will be routed to a call center in a foreign country. This is not due to the inexpensive workforce. It is instead due to the lowered cost of transmitting sound, your voice, really just bits, to foreign countries, and transferring bits back. The issue that arises from the fast travel, and lowered cost, of transmitting bits is outsourcing.

• Blown to Bits, Chapter 1
• Facebook Stores Everything, Forever