| I can see how a "life recorder" sounds appealing, and even genuinely useful. But shouldn't we also think about how much mischief and damage could be done to your life if someone decided to comb through your "life record"? Real-life cases of people who made extensive audio recordings of their day-to-day lives and what happened to them: (a) High-profile private investigator Anthony Pellicano recorded all his conversations with his clients, including Sylvester Stallone and Hollywood producer Aaron Russo ("Trading Places"). Details about the tapes were leaked by the police after his office was raided on an unrelated matter. (b) Tax-shelter promoter Gary Kornman, in his bankruptcy proceeding, was forced to reveal and turn over 8000 secret recordings he made of conversations with clients. (c) Former U.S. President Richard Nixon installed hidden microphones in his own office so that his advisers could not claim to have disagreed with his decisions. Nixon felt that such a record was very important but the taping system trapped himself. It's unfortunate that each of the examples above involve wrongdoing--they're the most readily found because they get the most publicity. But I think that anyone with a continuous record of their life will be vulnerable to being screwed over in some way.
It could be as simple finding instances where you said or did anything that was contradictory to your current opinions and beliefs. Putting the data in the cloud, and under the control of a third party, makes it that much worse to being exposed. A "life recorder" that was completely and utterly under your own control would make more sense. |