common-law
What is the extent of &quot;technically feasible&quot; in common law?
<p>If a law requires a website to perform a duty towards its users as far as technically feasible what is the extent ? Does it mainly take care of financxial costs? Meaning is something that is possible using existant technology but very expensive and has huge impact ( negative ) on the other users if little mistake is made in the process reasonable and technically feasible just because it is possible to do so considering that not performing it will not cause significant damage given technical measures ?</p>
<p>&quot;Technically feasible&quot; takes into account cost of technology or not ?</p>

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<p>&quot;Technically feasible&quot; takes into account cost of technology or not ?</p>
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<p>There is no general yes-no answer because common law usually is not <em>that</em> specific. If anything, that level of prescriptive specificity is likelier to be found in statutory law than in common law. That is why <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/61436/what-is-the-extent-of-technically-feasible-in-common-law?noredirect=1#comment128617_61436">I pointed out</a> the relevance of the context, statute, or precedent you have in mind.</p>
<p>Legal precedent in common law jurisdictions tends to focus on whether the reasons and circumstances merit requiring stricter compliance for the matter(s) at issue. Using <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/61436/what-is-the-extent-of-technically-feasible-in-common-law?noredirect=1#comment128619_61436">the example you outlined</a>, the standard for compliance would be stricter if the removal of relevant data was unwarranted given the circumstances. This means that the party under that duty will have to make a greater effort, and thus incur greater expenses, so as to compensate his imprudent or wrongful elimination of data. By contrast, in the absence of a legal or equitable duty to preserve the data, the criterion of &quot;<em>technically feasible</em>&quot; is unlikely to encompass deleted records which reasonably were deemed irrelevant or obsolete at the time of deletion.</p>
