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Comment by npizzolato | Hacker News Reader

There is no inconsistency here. A desire to record the police stems from the fact that there is a huge discrepancy in power in any interaction between a police officer and a normal citizen and that the police officer is on duty to uphold the laws established by society at large. That is a drastically different set of circumstances than wanting to record any average person all the time.

And personally, I don't want to have to live my life in a way where everything I say or do is on the record. I want the freedom to be able to make remarks and jokes that would be appropriate among friends but not to any random person. I don't want to have to phrase everything I say as PC as possible knowing that it will be stored forever.

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I didn't say we should require everyone to record themselves all the time. I said maybe it makes sense to encourage people to voluntarily record their public lives.

I think power discrepancies between private citizens can be just as great. I'm 5'6" and 120lbs. Even unarmed, many people pose a threat to me. Heck, I've been physically threatened by strangers several times in the past month.

Also, I think recording strangers in public would help curb antisocial behavior. There's a guy swearing loudly on his cell phone on the bus I'm riding. Maybe he'd tone it down a little if someone threatened to upload a video of him.

I travel on buses that have CCTV and a big monitor so everyone can see what the 8 or so cameras are recording. People swear loudly (no audio recording but I doubt that is a factor); people prepare cannabis cigarettes; etc etc.

Some people are just anti social[1] and do not care.

[1] preparing a joint isn't anti social! They're not smoking it on the bus. But it is illegal in the UK.

> Also, I think recording strangers in public would help curb antisocial behavior.

We have that ability already. In Australia last year there were several cases of racially motivated verbal abuse on public transport being caught on mobile phones. These made the evening news. I wonder if this, and other similar instances around the world, have made anyone think twice before being anti-social.

Threatening people who are swearing loudly with much of anything is pretty much guaranteed to lead to a confrontation.

It really depends on the situation. In this case, my tactic worked. I calmly told the man that there were children on the bus, and that he should tone down his conversation. Then I pulled out my phone to take his picture, but he covered his face and got off at the next stop. I wonder if he was worried about an encounter with police. Next time I'll take a picture first.

Yet another instance where life logging would have been useful: I was walking home this evening and someone in a car blasted me with an air horn. It's been about an hour since the incident. Both my ears feel like they are plugged and I hear ringing in my right ear. I got the car's make and model, but I was in too much pain to think about looking for the plate. Life logging probably would have caught the perpetrator.

Sorry what! 'Then I pulled out my phone to take his picture' I can't be the only one who thinks this guy is in the wrong.

You propose that people log there every day lives? Why don't we just increase the CCTV cameras on every street, so some one can watch our every moves 24/7.

Are you saying I'm in the wrong? If so, I'm not sure how you could justify that. The man was offending, distracting, and annoying everyone on the bus. His behavior wasn't illegal, but it should certainly be discouraged. Besides, photographing someone in a public place when they're currently being recorded by CCTV is about as benign an action as one can take.

I apologize if I've misinterpreted your comment.

You're not the only one. I think that strategy is overzealous and has potential to have terribly unintended consequences. Adria Richards comes to mind.

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