Off into the sunset

• Author: Jason Tashea
• Pages: 31-33

APRIL 2019 ABA JOURNAL || 31

Business of Law

ILLUSTRATION BY SARA WADFORD/SHUTTERSTOCK

Like Friendster , Windows Live Space s and Pownce before

it, Google Plus is about to go ex tinct.

In April, Google’s consumer-facing soci al network will

shut down because of lack luster user numbers and numerous

security brea ches. While there w ill be plenty of time for the

tech giant to conduct a post-mortem into what went wrong,

the more pressing issue wi ll be what to do with all the data

stored in Google’s failed social net work.

Keep it too long, and it takes up space or becomes a t arget

for hackers. Delete it too s oon, and it could run afou l of

discovery r ules requiring data to be ret ained for a certain

amount of time.

As t echnology comes and goes, there is a quest ion of

whether an app will s tay around or whether it will retai n

your data into perpe tuity, creating a need for data retention

systems. Not only is th is important for litigation purpose s,

but also business continuit y. Since most data and software

do not disappear overnight , technologists and attorne ys

Google Plus’ shutdown brings up ethical, legal questions

about companies’ data retention obligations By Jason Tashea

Technology

EDITED BY VICTOR LI / VICTOR.LI@AMERICANBAR.ORG

OFF INTO THE

SUNSET