This is something that keeps me worried at night. Unlike other historical artefacts like pottery, vellum writing, or stone tablets, information on the Internet can just blink into nonexistence when the server hosting it goes offline. This makes it difficult for future anthropologists who want to study our history and document the different Internet epochs. For my part, I always try to send any news article I see to an archival site (like archive.ph) to help collectively preserve our present so it can still be seen by others in the future.
The privacy of unknown individuals should not be compromised for an imaginary “future anthropologist” who is going to get absolutely nothing out of it in some imaginary future, when the very real consequences are currently being felt by unknown individuals in the present. Especially in the climate of rising fascism everywhere, persecution of LGBT+ people and other minorities.
It’s precisely because I can empathize with others that I believe this.
I do not wish to have my reality questioned any further. Thank you.