Traditionally reappraisal and deaccessioning of archival holdings have been actions aimed principally at freeing storage areas of objects no longer deemed valuable. In early 1970:s Sweden the game changed. Firstly, the technical means to combine, process and reuse data in public records were significantly improved. More could be collected at a lower cost and to a greater outcome. Secondly, the practical advantages of mass recording raised concerns about the limits of governmental and commercial surveillance with reference to citizen privacy resulting in the Data Act of 1973. This period in the history of Swedish archival practice has been studied primarily from a legal and social historical point of view. This paper looks into the technical preconditions such as the introduction of the computer database as a vehicle towards a new conception of archived information. The combination, I argue, of seemingly endless storage capacity and the conviction that data due to its automatic processing capabilities held intrinsic values as such, led to a view of erasure as both unneccessary and unresponsible, hostile even. In addition to referring to the 1970:s as the birth of ethical appraisal, this paper presents the same period as the beginnning of an era where the deletion of information is considered to be value destruction and generally unwanted.