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CTRL ALT PANIC – Is It Time To Delete (Almost) Everything?

No, this is not an April Fool’s joke.

It might actually be time to delete everything.
The social media posts.
The hot takes.
The political opinions.
Even your DNA test results… especially your DNA test results.

23andMe – yes, the company you spit into a tube for – just filed for bankruptcy.

And they’re planning to sell your genetic data.
Fifteen million people handed over the most intimate information possible in exchange for some ancestry info.
Now, that data could be sold to the highest bidder.
Legally.
Scary?
Maybe… but also expected.
This is the real cost of data permanence.
Once it’s out there… it’s out there.

Welcome to the Delete Everything Era?

We’re not just talking about a toxic tweet from 2015 or that photo from Vegas.
The new reality is one where your digital past are stored, sold, and scrutinized.
And that scrutiny? It’s not hypothetical anymore.
This is why more and more privacy experts are pushing for digital minimalism.
A reset. A cleanse.
Or, better yet, don’t post it to begin with.

There’s something to be learned from Snapchat here.

The ephemeral way.
Post, view, vanish.
Disappear by design.
Not for secrecy.
For sanity.
It was 2011 when Snapchat launched and made disappearing messages cool.
Now, in 2025, that feels prophetic.

We’re in a strange moment.

People are scrubbing their feeds, archiving posts, deleting old thoughts.
Not because they regret them.
But because they’re scared.
Because freedom of speech doesn’t equal freedom from consequences.
And increasingly, the consequences are coming for all of us.
It’s time to take the controls back.
Because the best privacy policy is the one you create for yourself.

Maybe you should delete everything… and don’t look back?

This is what Elias Makos and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM. Listen in right here.

Mitch Joel · CTRL ALT PANIC – Is It Time To Delete (Almost) Everything?

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Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.