Digital Shadows Remain Even if You Can't See Them

In case you didn’t know, it is now possible to send messages that disappear as soon as you send them. After Snapchat, the so-called “Vanish mode” has been introduced to direct messages on Instagram, and is likely to reach other messaging platforms soon too. It means that your messages will all magically disappear when you go back to the “normal” mode. If you want to keep a specific text or photo, you need to screenshot it. Unlike before, the screenshot sends a notification to the sender. So there is full transparency between the sender and recipient, but obscurity between them two and anyone else.

Features are added in response to demand, and the Vanish mode taps into a clear appetite for more privacy in private messaging among social media users. But the interest of not keeping a trace of what you share privately, begs the question of purpose: why would anyone want to engage in conversations that they cannot keep a history of? After all, isn’t the possibility for archive and later retrieval the unique asset of digital communication? Before you jump to the conclusion that the Vanish mode is just for cheating partners and criminals, consider the logic behind digital shadows.

Digital Shadows, also called digital ghosts, phantom bodies or digital footprint are the digital traces that you leave behind every time you visit a website, search for a piece of information, send an email or an emoji. These traces are processed by algorithms for a number of reasons, including making searches and digital communication easier and more user-responsive (the so-called adaptive algorithms). Digital shadows are part of our digital identities and are also used for matching individuals on dating sites, evaluating students' progress, or by governments watching the behaviors of potential terrorists. By far the most profitable use of digital shadows is accounted by the big platforms that control world’s search and communication: Google and Facebook. These companies have perfected the ways in which to profit from digital traces.

Today’s portfolio of Facebook Inc. services includes Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, with 2.47 billion people using Facebook alone. Despite the Cambridge Analytica scandal and almost daily news about personal data misuse, users are steadily flocking to Facebook’s expanding networks. Why? Convenience and lack of alternatives, especially during times when digital communication is the only way of staying in touch with each other. We want the communication to be fast, free and well-functioning. Only platforms with a big user base currently have those attributes. We thus find ourselves in the familiar circle of walking the well-trodden paths of Facebook’s owned platforms, giving them more information to perfect their tracing systems. And so we end up sharing private information in exchange of services that are monetising our digital shadows (a phenomenon known as the “privacy paradox”).

Although a lot of digital communication is transient, when we face it straight, we might not like it. Anyone who has experienced unwanted sharing of their private information knows the moment of dread when their digital shadow gets reflected back at them. It is a truly unpleasant feeling when our phantom bodies become alive without our consent. This is at the crux of children’s attitudes towards unwanted sharenting, but also revenge porn or intimate images ending in wrong hands. Children’s data are particularly “lucrative”, and particularly important to protect. Legislations are slow-coming, and the options for individuals to remove unwanted digital traces vary from country to country. In the UK, children can request their photos are deleted when they turn 18. In Norway, Telenor, the Norwegian telecommunications company, offers the service “Nettslett”, which removes unwanted images from the Internet upon users' request. Piecemeal solutions are quick remedies for an overdue problem: as predicted in 2012, the proportion of data that requires protection is growing faster than the digital universe itself. We all saw that during the pandemic, big platforms have simply lost control with increased traffic.

Similarly to the natural, light-dependent, shadows, our digital shadows get larger the closer we get to the source of light: in this case the more intimate we get with the individual platforms. The more we share in the digital universe, the higher the likelihood that our digital phantoms are not only reflecting but also actively shaping our identity. We become who we portray rather than who we are. The Vanish mode reduces the quantity of what we share. Part of its appeal lies in the reduction of digital footprint. But the key reason it generates so many discussions on social media is that it taps right into the human psyche, exploiting our curiosity.

The desire to sit on the other side of someone’s shadow and see what they looked at, for how long and when, is gradually kindled with Facebook’s addition of new features that track others’ behaviors. If we unintentionally leave behind visible digital traces, such as likes or comments on others’ posts, there is ammunition for interpretation and material for viral tweets. Such narratives will end if we all engage in Vanish mode communication. With an automatic notification following each screenshot, digital shadow-catching and lurking on friends' profiles or ex-es' stories will be passé. The real loss, however, would be if digital communication does not extend but replicate face-to-face communication.

The Vanish mode gives the illusion that you have genuine privacy and are free to communicate just like you would in a private face-to-face conversation that you don’t assume anyone is recording. Thoughts roll in parallel with words. It’s fun and playful, you don't need to worry about making mistakes or saying anything inappropriate- it all vanishes anyway. Except it does not. Facebook gives a lot of guidance on how to use the Vanish feature but not what lies behind it and what actually happens to the data that is supposed to be forever erased. But even if the Big Tech came up with systems that ensure permanent deletion, the promised transiency of communication is an illusion.

Just like in verbal communication, what is seen and registered by another person cannot be erased with a simple click. Although intangible, digital traces have material consequences: words and images can hurt others, influence their actions, affect their relationships with other people. Like regular shadows, digital shadows follow you around. One thing is permanent regardless of our movements: our agency. We decide what we share, with whom and how. We have control in how we shape our digital identity. That is why the old proverb “think before you speak” (modernized as “think before you share”) applies to all types of human communication, including the Vanish mode.