true, oh so very true
Its a selective quality, which wipes what needs to be wiped and nothing more. I've seen two versions:
The expert hacker friend (Jane-In-The-Box) who keeps the character looking like a respectable citizen, but wont hack anything that will draw attention (figuring that some hacks will draw more attention then letting the damage go). So sometimes some stuff gets out, but generally the character has a clean record as a private detective.
Then their was the gal whose Hunted did the Erasing. So stuff was erased, but also stored so that they could monitor and track the Runner in question. They were agressive and even hacked an Ares task force. But everytime they 'erased' something, it bought the runner closer to her doom... ok, hasn't happened yet, but one day the other foot will fall!
Erased is a roleplaying quality, not just some random circumstance. Its not unintelligent, but driven by the motivation and skill of the 'eraser'. Obviously it shouldn''t be Joe from local tech support who erasses your criminal history or that 'unfortunate' news clip (when will runners release going commando doesn't mean
that!). And some things shouldn't be erasable. Cybereye footage, unless uploaded, should be fine, hard copy pics, hard copy files, etc, and really, really public events? How do you erase something that's gone viral and had hundred thousand hits already? There are limits...
