[munk-a]

I am rather disappointed in github for publishing this guide. The portion at the top stating

> Warning: Once you have pushed a commit to GitHub, you should consider any data it contains to be compromised. If you committed a password, change it! If you committed a key, generate a new one.

Is a good argument as to why you shouldn't let users erase this data from history, it's already out there so no matter how painful or convoluted your process is for regenerating auth credentials is, you need to do it if you've published them into your SCM. If the process is painful you might want to simplify it because you'll probably need to do it sometime in the future again... yes even you large corporate workers who have no control over credential regeneration, an arduous process leads to credential sharing between projects which is another horrible thing.

[tedivm]

They are doing the right thing by letting the users control their own data, and at most they can make it more complicated to do but not impossible.

There are cases- such as complying with court orders- where removing the data is appropriate (even if a bit futile in the long run).

[matt4077]

There is sensitive data that isn't a password, and can't be changed.