Privacy is dead, so get over it.

I came to this point in January 2005, and had written a scripted fictional video to drive the point home, but I never got around to producing it. No matter, its now October 2005, so I figured I better get the idea out there.

The way technology is heading, we will soon all be carrying around multipurpose handheld devices for phone, organising and audio/visual playback and recording. These devices will all be directly IP addressable on the Internet, meaning we will soon have the ability to broadcast 24 hour a day footage of our or other peoples’ lives. I could connect to your camera in real time, record, remix and make it available to someone else in real time.

With the digital age, electronic recording of personal details, and the countless surveillance cameras that film us every day of our lives, many of which are also now available on the Internet, governments started to put privacy legislation in place several years ago.

However the interesting thing is that governments realise that prevention isn’t the answer. These laws don’t hide and protect our personal information, they mostly only allow us to find out what people have already recorded about us.

Like was the case with DRM, the flexibility of the technology will eventually outweigh the right to privacy. Like region coding on DVDs, manufacturers will open up their device capability, because we want them to. There’s a market for small unrestricted cameras and audio recorders, and the market will certainly supply them.

So let us assume that privacy will inevitably be massively breached, and that we have no control over it. What happens next?

Well, because so much footage will be available on the Internet, people will begin to get used to it, and eventually not actually care that their lives are being recorded and made available to the public. With billions upon billions of personal videos available online, who will really care any more? And if that’s the case, then privacy is effectively dead.

The only reason we are precious about our privacy, is because we’ve always had it that way, and we’ve been brought up to think that way.

When I raised this at the Melbourne videoblogger meetup earlier this year, the response was that the public would eventually self regulate and stop privacy breaches. But as a pretty moral person myself, I have no qualms including other people in my videos without their permission, and I’m sure most videobloggers are the same. What happens when the immoral people start videoing? As video recorders become ubiquitous, the self regulating moral few will have no effect at all.

While current opinion is that a person’s privacy needs to be respected and protected, in the long run it won’t be, and we’ll just get over the preciousness of privacy. In the circles I’m in, I constantly meet people who no longer care about privacy and being filmed. When will you?

Privacy is dead. So get over it.

Preproduction for A Walk in the Black Forest episode 227. “Amusing. Not funny, but definitely amusing…”

In order of appearance: looking for working headphones; we forgot to bring the intro music; we download it from our web site; Abe’s a legend (apparently); Pete forgets the tape we record onto (because I stole it); finding a kick (after the introduction) song; making Abe jealous; having fun with mic/sound checks; the show starts.

Podcasters can bite us.

Video is at 480×360, so open it in standalone QuickTime for full size.

Production meetings for WBF are usually a toppingfest, but it serves its purpose. This video didn’t come out too well, but was mildly amusing. In order of appearance: do we have any material; why am I videoing this; do you have any material; will we rant and rave or have segments; Rock Hudson; Richard’s older than Pete; do we have any material; tooth veneers (actual material used later in the show); Pete’s drinking V, and lactating; the hermit; are we having sex; do we have any segments; the best of Spiderbait; Pete knows everything, again; we have backing music; Rip Roarin’s latest album; oi oi poo poo; the subtleties of French language; why am I videoing this; it’s time to go Abe.

This is also the first video at my new resolution of 480×360 instead of 320×240. I hear Ant may soon be able to show it at 480×360 as well. Gotta love technology and fat pipes.

I did this on my text blog the other day, so here it is again in video.

I’ve finally changed my domain name from my ISP URL to a real URL. Please change any URL you have pointing to my old site (www.zipworld.com.au/~kashum), to my new www.kashum.com site.

Or for reference:

Site/blog/vlog: http://www.kashum.com

RSS (2.0) feed: http://www.kashum.com/rss2.xml

I’ll leave the old domain around for two weeks, so please change them as soon as possible in your reader or whatever client you’re using.

Changing URLs is annoying for you and me, and I realise its easier to just delete me than change me, but please stick with it, I promise I’ll be good (or bad, whatever you’d usually expect).

Special thanks to Nathan, who kindly donated the domain a few months back. I’ve only just had time to do make it all happen.

They’re replacing the pavement in our street, but like all council workers, they be a touch slow, because of course all good things take time…

If you’re in Sydney today (Saturday, 1st October 2005), then you may be interested in listening to episode 227 of A Walk in the Black Forest, the comedy radio show that I do every so often. We’re on from 10pm to midnight, on 2RRR which is 88.5 FM.

I’ve finally changed my domain name from my ISP URL to a real URL. Please change any URL you have pointing to my old site (www.zipworld.com.au/~kashum), to my new www.kashum.com site.

Or for reference:

Site/blog/vlog: http://www.kashum.com

RSS (2.0) feed: http://www.kashum.com/rss2.xml

I’ll leave the old domain around for two weeks, so please change them as soon as possible in your reader or whatever client you’re using.

Changing URLs is annoying for you and me, and I realise its easier to just delete me than change me, but please stick with it, I promise I’ll be good (or bad, whatever you’d usually expect).

Special thanks to Nathan, who kindly donated the domain a few months back. I’ve only just had time to do make it all happen.

One of our many local stray cats.

Via David Maney, a meme.

RULES:

1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to it).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to it).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

My 23rd post is about the Speech Accent Archive, the fifth sentence (or third, because there is no fifth) is:

Only one from Australia though, which is a shame.

The birthday dilemna. To vlog, or not to vlog: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to vlog the slings and arrows of birthday rights, or to take arms against a sea of public enquiry, and by opposing stay mute? To be quiet: to let strangers in; no more; and by being quiet to say we are mute. The gifts and the thousand birth acclamations that life is heir to, ’tis a consummation devoutly to be wish’d. To be quiet, to let strangers in; To be quiet: perchance to receive: ay, there’s the rub; for in that silence of birth what gifts may come when we have shuffled off this date of import, must give us pause: there’s the respect that makes calamity of so many years; for who would bear the hollowness and shallowness of presents, the acquaintance’s guess, the proud man’s selfishness, the pangs of gifts of despised love, the law’s restriction, the insolence of office workers and the spurns that parents merit of the unworthy takes, when he himself might his birthday make with a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary card, but that the dread of something instead of a birthday, the undiscover’d day from whose bourn no commercialism returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those birthdays we have than fly to others that we know not of? Thus commercialism does make consumers of us all; and thus the native hue of celebration is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, and gifts of great pith and moment with this regard their usefulness turn awry, and lose the name of value. – Cheap you now! The fair Birthday! Nymph, in thy orisons be all my non-birthdays be remember’d.

So what did you do on 27th September 2005?