A Spy Machine Of DARPA's Dreams

from the for-good-or-for-evil? dept

There have been plenty of articles about Microsoft's "mylifebits" project and a similar project at consulting firm Accenture to create a "backup brain" that records everything going on around you and everything you do. People have mixed opinions on these concerning whether or not they'll be useful - but don't seem too concerned about the privacy implications. However, when the Defense Department says it's looking for researchers to build the same sort of thing, called the LifeLog, the conspiracy theorists come out from wherever they were hiding. This project sounds like basically the same thing that Microsoft is doing, but since it's a DARPA project, people are suggesting that it's really the "new" TIA - and that any such system will record everything you do and everywhere you go into a central database to be datamined. I think that's taking a simple research proposal and extrapolating out a bit too far, but who knows?
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Joe Schmoe, 20 May 2003 @ 2:05pm

    hmmm

    I just find it rather curious that they claim that the space required [to capture a "lifetime" of information] happens to be about a Terabyte (the Maximum Database Size for MS SQL Server)...

    http://www.microsoft.com/sql/evaluation/overview/default.asp

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Thom Kozik, 20 May 2003 @ 4:15pm

    Why all the fuss? MIT Media Lab's been working on

    ...for years. Having seen the project in action up there, the coolest thing is the use of audio recording & processing to build an *index* of all your discussions, meetings, etc. If MIT's research ever sees the light of day as a product, I'll be near the front of the line.

    Projects at Microsoft, Accenture, DoD, et al are meaningless, unless you have a great interface for extracting the information

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.