This is Tech

I have been thinking lately about the inevitability of life recording. As the number of cameras around us multiplies, it seems unavoidable that recording one’s life for convenience will become commonplace.

The concept is simple, strap a video camera to your head and record everything you see and hear. Transfer the data to storage and process the sound and graphics with voice and text recognition to facilitate full text search of things you hear and see. Add face recognition and you can search for conversations based on who you were talking with. Add a GPS chip and you can search based on location. This is Google for your life. Perfect recall.

You may be thinking that strapping a camera to your head would look ridiculous. You would be right, but video cameras are shrinking fast. I have written in the past about the VIO POV1 camera as a good option for Life Recording, and just yesterday Think Geek started selling a remote controlled still camera built into a pair of sun glasses. Inconspicuous wearable cameras are not far off.

The downside to this advance is a loss of privacy. Not just the privacy of those wearing cameras, but those they interact with and society at large. The problem is that recorded information is discoverable. Even if life recorders don’t publish their recordings, court orders and police warrants would make this information a treasure trove for litigators and government authorities. The first and second year lawyers that now spend their time sifting though hard drives worth of email messages, will eventually be sifting through video and audio looking for incriminating conversations.

Privacy is an important issue, but like it or not most people just won’t understand what they are giving up, or worse, won’t care. I am surprised time and time again at how often people choose convenience over privacy, whether it be a free gmail account or a small discount on groceries. Experience tells me that Life Recording won’t be any different.

The number of cameras recording us is growing everyday. The loss of privacy may be unavoidable, but at least you will never forget a name, perfectly recall anything you have ever read, and win those arguments over who said what and when.