Abstract
Will the proliferation of devices that provide the continuous archival and retrieval of personal experiences (CARPE) improve control over, access to and the record of collective knowledge as Vannevar Bush once predicted with his futuristic memex? Or is it possible that their increasing ubiquity might pose fundamental risks to humanity, as Donald Norman contemplated in his investigation of an imaginary CARPE device he called the “Teddy”? Through an examination of the webcam experiment of Jenni Ringley and the EyeTap experiments of Steve Mann, this article explores some of the social implications of CARPE. The authors’ central claim is that focussing on notions of individual consent and control in assessing the privacy implications of CARPE while reflective of the individualistic conception of privacy that predominates western thinking, is nevertheless inadequate in terms of recognizing the effect of individual uptake of these kinds of technologies on the level of privacy we are all collectively entitled to expect. The authors urge that future analysis ought to take a broader approach that considers contextual factors affecting user groups and the possible limitations on our collective ability to control the social meanings associated with the subsequent distribution and use of personal images and experiences after they are captured and archived. The authors ultimately recommend an approach that takes into account the collective impact that CARPE technologies will have on privacy and identity formation and highlight aspects of that approach.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge and thank Katie Black, Jeremy Hessing-Lewis, Louisa Garib, Brad Jenkins and Julie Shugarman for their invaluable research and editorial assistance, as well as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for funding On the Identity Trail, a four year research project from which this article derives. Special thanks also to our colleague Steve Mann for spurring us on with truly stunning and original ideas, as always, inspiring much shock and awe.
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Bailey, J., Kerr, I. Seizing control?: The experience capture experiments of Ringley & Mann. Ethics Inf Technol 9, 129–139 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-007-9135-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-007-9135-5