A photo every 30 seconds: Does Memoto’s CEO think his lifelogging camera has a privacy problem?

I’ll confess, I’m more than a little excited about the forthcoming release of the Memoto camera.

Regular readers will be familiar with this tiny, wearable camera from a Swedish startup. It will take a picture every 30 seconds of what’s in front of you, resulting in a visual diary of your life, browsable from an accompanying app on your iOS or Android smartphone.

Of course, automatically taking pictures of people who don’t know they’re having their picture taken raises a number of social issues, from privacy concerns to the fact that we’ll have to get used to the idea of there being many more pictures of us out there that we’re not aware of. On the flipside, just like dashboard-mounted cameras in Russia, the Memoto could allow the public to provide their own evidence in situations where they face false accusations by the authorities (who are starting to get wearable cameras of their own).

It’s rare that a startup has to face so many important concerns before it’s even launched, and so Memoto has been engaged in a PR drive that has included releasing a documentary about the story of the lifelogging movement so far. CEO Martin Källström took to the stage at LeWeb London last week to discuss the issues at hand. Afterwards, I caught up with him to talk over how the company is tackling the debate around a product that isn’t even available yet.

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Watch the video below to hear our conversation. Memoto’s launch has been pushed back to late summer but it’s available to preorder now.