You are, have, and will continue to be watched…

Yesterday I connected to the security camera DVR and deleted all the images that were older than 30 days. It took me about 20 minutes mostly because I forgot the password and had to wait for the reset to occur, but once that was done, we were good to go in about 55 seconds. I did that of course because that is the rule I think should be in place. You do need to be able to review things that happen over the last 30 days. Criminals often case the place for longer than a week. In fact, they often case entire neighborhoods looking for the weak link in the herd. Having 30 days helps because you can look and watch the road.

If you see a car that shouldn’t be there, you can mention it to the neighborhood watch. Thirty days feels like the right amount to keep. I got quite a bit of email over the weekend from longtime readers saying that my ask was hard. Not wrong mind you, but hard. The right thing to do isn’t often easy. In fact doing the right thing is often harder than doing the easier wrong thing. We have laws today that are focused on the difference between public and private.

The reality of those laws is that they don’t reference what public truly is. You have the right to go to a park, and if you don’t wish to be photographed, you should be able to do so. Photographers are pretty good about not taking pictures of your family if you ask. Unless you are a celebrity, then you are screwed. That is, however, part of the problem. The other issue is that of all the cameras that watch us now. The justification that the law allows you to do something isn’t always the right answer. In this case, I worry that we are increasing the risk for everyone without taking into account what people will need in the future.

Sometimes the best thing isn’t the easy thing.