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Lifelogging is dead for now

computerworld.com

41–50 of 60 posts

Re: Lifelogging is dead for now

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still do, don't worry. When it comes to state surveillance, you're in one of two groups: Either you're a target, in which case they already know everything about you and turning off location history in Google isn't going to accomplish anything, -or- you're not a target in which case nobody cares about your location history.

Well if you are not a target right now, you could always become one. So it does matter to turn off location history. And even if you are a target right now, you probably do not know this. So you still want to turn off location history. I am not sure what you are saying, it sounds very smart, but it isn't ?

What I'm saying: If the Government (or anyone of consequence really) wants to know where you are, your phone's location history setting isn't going to save you.

And more than likely nobody cares where you are because like everyone else, you don't matter.

It's the old argument against conspiracy theories: If you actually knew something damaging to the Government and they really wanted you dead, they have numerous ways to accomplish that, none of which are affected by you living in the desert with a tinfoil hat.

Re: Lifelogging is dead for now

#42
post #3

Every 2m a snapshot of my desktop gets taken through cron for personal review later. Would be nice if I had a similar minimally socially invasive tool away from my computer. Perhaps I can just use my memory for that.

what possible use could that have?

Could be a contractor billing by the hour. Plenty of people track their time this way.

Re: Lifelogging is dead for now

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still do, don't worry. When it comes to state surveillance, you're in one of two groups: Either you're a target, in which case they already know everything about you and turning off location history in Google isn't going to accomplish anything, -or- you're not a target in which case nobody cares about your location history.

Well if you are not a target right now, you could always become one. So it does matter to turn off location history. And even if you are a target right now, you probably do not know this. So you still want to turn off location history. I am not sure what you are saying, it sounds very smart, but it isn't ?

I think the point is that the NSA allegedly infected air-gapped Iranian nuclear facilities (i.e. Stuxnet), so if they see you as a target they already have a trojan hiding on your phone (a much easier target than Iranian nuclear equipment) and transmitting your location directly to them, regardless of whether or not you enabled location history. Therefore if you are attempting to prevent government surveillance by turning off location history, you are wasting your effort and may as well turn it back on and enjoy the advantages.

That said I don't believe in making their job easier, nor in giving out my info to non-government hackers nor to advertisers, so I have location history disabled.

Re: Lifelogging is dead for now

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about a questionably trustworthy tech startup?

Theoretically yes. Practically I'd be very surprised if such a tech startup would have terms I would trust. Things I'd be looking at: * data ownership - including in the event the startup is bought * data access revocation - I want to be able to revoke access to my data in a meaningful way * business plan - I want to be the customer not the product for something like this * portability - I don't want to feel that I'm…

I built Socialite.ooo, it really needs a mobile app, but it's a site for keeping track of and taking notes on people, events, and locations (correlating them). Business model is paid (haven't implemented that yet) so that there will be no selling of data.

I'd love to do something with a fully encrypted system, but the usability / recovery trade offs just didn't seem worth it when designing the site.

I work and am pursuing my master's, so I haven't had a ton of time to build an app for it.

Re: Lifelogging is dead for now

#45
post #23

I absolutely would like to record everything but I'm not prepared for all that data to live in the cloud and belong to some untrustworthy tech giant.

To the best of my knowledge this is the holdup. We need an encrypted cloud. One we know only we have the keys to. There will be no data mining beyond users mining themselves, when it comes to privacy, with the line drawn by the user, not the provider.

Check out librevault, it does encrypted file sync using a DHT to find peers, allows for encrypted-only nodes which cannot decrypt your files (so you can throw them up on cheap VPSes, or friend's machines without worry) and in a nice open source package. Only catch so far is that the file indexing seemed kind of slow compared to SyncThing last time I tried it.

Re: Lifelogging is dead for now

#46

There's a life log built into Google Maps. It's called Timeline and it's pretty neat. It annotates your raw location history with the names of places you've been and the photos you took while you were there. It's a nice benefit for those of us who don't mind letting Google store our location history. https://www.google.com/maps/timeline

Interesting! When I log in, it only shows the timeline from when I had an android phone. It does not show anything since I've owned a Windows Phone and now and iPhone. Might be a good thing.

Re: Lifelogging is dead for now

#47
Depends on your definition of lifelogging I guess, I would argue that most lifelogging happens on Facebook now. Most people don't want to automatically share every detail about their lives, they want to present a filtered, sanitized version that serves as a personal narrative.

Re: Lifelogging is dead for now

#49

I'm genuinely surprised that so many people are interested in logging every detail of their lives. It seems like the obsession with collecting memories on your hard drive is a great way to never collect any of them in your head

If you are more concerned with taking pictures than being in the moment and absorbing the gestalt of the experience, then yes. That being said, a photographic log of particularly salient experiences can provide retrieval cues down the line to help you re-live and re-enjoy them.

Re: Lifelogging is dead for now

#50
post #14

I always wondered what would happen to violent crime if everyone logged what happens? (If there is no obvious camera, it would be enough if 10-15% logged, for the risk to increase.) A button sends the last minute of everything that happened to the police, along with GPS coordinates (preferably with a face recognition service)? If your voice is needed to turn off logging, it will be obvious what happened, when knock o…

That reminds me of the SF short story about the invention of a machine that could play any past event like a movie on TV and how it transformed society. Imagine a world where anyone could play back any moment of anyone's life (living or dead) at any time, unedited.

http://www.ebooktrove.com/Asimov,%20Isaac/Asimov,%20Isaac%20...

The Dead Past by Asimov.

I also recommend this story for a very refreshing view on government agencies.

--

(Spoiler alert)

The issue with such a device is not being able to see people's lives unedited, but that "the past" also means "a microsecond ago" - which turns that device into an ultimate spying/voyeur tool.

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