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"I don't know why I write science fiction. The voices in my head told me to!"
- Charles Stross

Data Haven  
  A place where data that cannot legally be kept can be stashed for later use; an offshore web host.  

This is an interesting topic; companies often need information that they are not legally allowed to know. For example, some hospitals are not allowed to mark patients as HIV positive (because it stigmatizes patients); staff members create codes or other ways so they can take the necessary steps to protect themselves.

This idea of information being lifted clear of the data networks is also explored at length in Shockwave Rider, by John Brunner.

…Laura had never realized the profit to be gained by evading the developed world's privacy laws. Thousands of legitimate companies maintained dossiers on individuals: employee records, medical histories, credit transactions. In the Net economies, business was impossible without such information. In the legitimate world, companies purged this information periodically, as required by law.

But not all of it was purged. Reams of it ended up in the data havens, passed on through bribery of clerks, through taps of datalines, and by outright commercial espionage…

The havens were bootstrapping their way up to Big Brother status…

Technovelgy from Islands in the Net, by Bruce Sterling.
Published by William Morrow in 1988
Additional resources -

If information is really the currency of the future, why not keep a copy of your data stashed in an offshore web host, one that is not recorded. In the event that you lose your company and its information, you could resurrect it from your other host.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Islands in the Net
  More Ideas and Technology by Bruce Sterling
  Tech news articles related to Islands in the Net
  Tech news articles related to works by Bruce Sterling

Data Haven-related news articles:
  - The Pirate Bay Wants Data Haven On Sealand
  - Google Navy: Water-Based Data Centers
  - Cultybraggan Nuclear Bunker Perfect For Data Crypt

Articles related to Data Storage
Lonestar Offers Lunar Storage For Ultimate In Security
100X Improvement In DNA Information Storage
Twist Bioscience High Density Digital Data On DNA
Store One Bit On One Atom

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Science Fiction in the News

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'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'

Maybe It's Too Soon To Require Autonomous Mode
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.

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'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'

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