Sensitive Lifelogs: A Privacy Analysis Of Photos From Wearable Cameras

While media reports about wearable cameras have focused on the privacy concerns of bystanders, the perspectives of the 'lifeloggers' themselves have not been adequately studied. We report on additional analysis of our previous in-situ lifelogging study in which 36 participants wore a camera for a week and then reviewed the images to specify privacy and sharing preferences. In this Note, we analyze the photos themselves, seeking to understand what makes a photo private, what participants said about their images, and what we can learn about privacy in this new and very different context where photos are captured automatically by one's wearable camera. We find that these devices record many moments that may not be captured by traditional (deliberate) photography, with camera owners concerned about impression management and protecting private information of both themselves and bystanders.