In the News
Myspace returns as a relevant news topic, but not for a good reason. In Myspace may have lost more than a decade’s worth of user music, Brian Heater at TechCrunch discusses how a recent ‘server migration’ resulted in the loss of user data including photos and music if they were uploaded onto the platform more than three years ago. Heater explains that Myspace used to be one of the most popular platforms for music upload and social media in the US and that this type of data loss might be devastating for previous uploaders of photo and music content.
Our Take
Although Myspace has become somewhat of an obsolete social media platform, the same cannot be said about the contents and data users had previously uploaded onto the platform. Whenever a social media platform, app, or account becomes less popular, users tend to flock to the newest and more popular versions. However, all of the data and information once uploaded on the previous accounts remain–and it should. When user data is lost or destroyed without consent or prior knowledge the impact can be enormous. Think about how much of your information is stored on Facebook or another similar platform. Do you have all of the contents backed up? Alternatively, would you potentially lose some of your favorite pictures, conversations, and videos? This is the case with Myspace, and it is especially devastating because of how unique music can be to creators and how much user data was previously stored on Myspace. Always remember that once your data is uploaded somewhere, a company tends to have more control over what happens to the data than you do yourself…act accordingly.
Recommendations
How can you protect your data from being lost or destroyed?
- Always backup your data on an external hard drive or on an additional account
- Keep track of your uploaded information and contents on your various accounts over time
- Utilize secure and trustworthy platforms for data storage and uploading purposes