Longevity and Permanence
Permanence definitely means something different now, with the internet. Link rot is forever increasing, and will keep causing things to go missing on the internet. This is one of the reasons I like simple platforms (like Bear blog), where commitments to `forever’ have been made.
Linkrot
I suppose this has always been an issue since the conception of the internet. The Internet Archive has been attempting to solve this issue, but with the size and scale of the internet, it will never be possible to keep a copy of each and every item stored on it.
There have been some efforts made to try and prevent it, especially with DOIs in academia, but these are expensive and inaccessible to anyone but journals. ARKs are complicated to set up, but if you have the technical knowledge, they could help create persistent identifiers for items on the internet.
I would like to think that this will become less prevalent as the issue becomes more widely known, but I think for the time being
IPFS
IPFS attempts to solve linkrot by decentralising the internet, allowing anyone to store a copy of anything. I think this would help alleviate some issues with linkrot, however less used files will ultimately rely on the individual that created it to maintain a copy. One of its main uses, at least at the moment, is to distribute pirated books and other media (as well as malware).
This does seem to be becoming a more commonly used transfer protocol, but this could be due to its use with piracy.
Censorship
Things on the internet are easy to block by governments - as demonstrated by the PRC and every other government. Individuals have very little control over the access they have, and things can be removed from access at any time. IPFS would overcome these issues by making it impossible to block every copy of an item. VPNs don’t really overcome these issues, as files that are removed by the organisation hosting them may not be stored anywhere else that is accessible. This could be the case with Facebook (or any social media platform) removing posts.
Tape
Tape is often presented as a long-term archive solution for digital data. And it is able to store data for longer periods of time, without electricity, and so is probably an improvement. But it is expensive, cumbersome, and completely inaccessible to almost anyone. And the technology only supports two generations of backwards compatibility, so you might have all your data on tape but be unable to access it due to the readers not being able to make out the data. Some types of tape are prone to degradation, leading to issues in storage - further making their contents inaccessible.
Bit Rot
The degradation of data stored on hard drives and SSDs is another way of loosing data. It becomes a bigger issue with unused drives that aren’t powered on. With the cloud, this is less of an issue due to the maintenance provided by the storage provider, but the high ongoing cost constrains the amount of data that can be stored - not least the bandwidth and retrieval fees charged by AWS and the like.
Fire
Fire destroys virtually all forms of data storage. Maybe the only one that wouldn’t be damaged would be the glass-laser technology Microsoft is working on? But that is likely many years away from being a common technology. I suppose the best mitigation to fire would be to remove naked flames (things like gas stoves) and keeping paper and plastic away from hot things.
Everything as a Subscription
The move to subscription access to films with Netflix initiated vast swathes of digital media becoming solely accessible under subscription. Journals, academic books, and more are only accessible under certain (expensive) subscriptions. The removal of films and series by Disney as part of a tax reduction strategy recently occurred, and this exemplified the lack of ownership this new technology has provided. A DVD was not able to be recalled once someone bought it. This article by Birchler, advocating for downloading media was one I found interesting, and think is a good read.
Paper
Paper is an (almost) immutable record. It doesn’t require specialist software to view, doesn’t degrade over time (when looked after), and is cheap. Paper records have lasted for thousands of years, and will likely exist for thousands more. You should print your photos, keep paper notes, and print things out. Once something is printed out, it can only be destroyed by yourself (through fire, flood, or shredding) - the government would have to physically visit you to raid it.
Essentially, we should be planning for failure, and with the internet being such an integral component of life today, we are only one hiccup away from big issues.