12. How expensive is it to store the video footage of a legislator?
If recording from a single angle, at a good resolution (720p/1080p) and bitrate (24-30f/s), one hour of video footage takes between 800MB to 1.2GB in disk space usage. Estimating one legislator would record about 10 hours a day for about 250 days a year, which would result in about 2.5TB disk space required to store one copy of a legislator's yearly footage. As of 2023, the price of hardware to store 1TB amounts to about 2h of the minimum salary in the developed nations. Based on the backup strategy, the type of storage hardware chosen, and the duration of the storage, the storage cost will increase slightly.
There are many different tech companies that provide storage of data in their cloud. An average yearly cloud storage cost for 2.5TB offered by such companies, is a few hours (4h to 8h) the minimum salary paid in the developed nations. A typical legislator's salary would cover the yearly cost of the legislator's video recording storage fees within a few minutes of pay (in some cases it will only take a few seconds worth of a legislator's pay to store the yearly footage of that legislator).
Many of the public streaming companies would stream and store legislators' videos for free if they are allowed to monetize such videos.
13. What are the ideal functionalities a body camera should have?
An ideal body camera would perform functions such as:
- have the option to display the current timestamp on the video, the recording mode, or the current GPS location on the recording;
- have buttons to easily set the current recording mode and whether or not the current recording has the potential to be classified;
- have a display facing outwards, to let others know the current recording mode of the camera. Available recording modes can be Live streaming, Public recording (recording that could capture classified information and that will instantly be directed to the regulatory body, if the information already captured should not be classified, then the recording to be directed to public storage), Restricted recording (recording where the parties involved in the recording have a say in whether or not the footage should be classified and for how long -- for example during party meetings, when the recording is controlled by the party, or the classification length of the recording is controlled by the participants at the end of the meeting), Personal recording (recording directed to personal storage), Offline (the camera is turned off).
- have the ability to perform a 360-degree recording, where not only the surroundings of the legislator are being recorded, but also the legislator's body.
14. What is the preferred order of the recording modes?
The legislators should use the least private option when streaming/recording their activity. The order from the most transparent to the least transparent is: 1. Live streaming. 2. Public recording without classified information. 3. Public recording deemed classified. 4. Restricted recording. 5. Personal recording.
15. How should the classified footage be handled?
Guidelines for classified footage:
- All classified footage is to be set with a public declassification date or the date when the footage will be next reviewed for its classification status;
- The following details of the classified footage should be released the same day the recording took place: file name of the classified footage (which contains the timestamp the recording started at), the MD5 checksum of the file, the disk size of the file, the exact length of the footage, declassification/review date;
- If only part of a recording is classified and the unclassified part is of public interest, the unclassified part is to be edited out and publicly released;
- Automatically declassify footage, if the footage was classified at the request of any participants in the recording, after all who requested the classification are dead;
- A legislator can provide the encrypted classified recording for public download but keep the encryption key private until the recording is declassified;
- No classified information is to be destroyed, until it's made publicly available for a year.
16. I'm not sure if the discussion I have relates to lawmaking, what should I do?
Record it in personal mode. If still unsure after the recording takes place, you should submit it as classified, no later than the time of your death.
Other legislators or candidates who are part of your recording, could have a say in how long the recording should be classified for (no longer than one's lifetime), but the constituents who talk to a legislator should not have a say in what the declassification time is (the constituents have the option to record and release their interractions with the legislators as they see fit).
Any constituent/legislator involved in a discussion can declassify it at any point, the declassification date set originally is merely a wish, that may or may not happen, depending on what the other participants decide going forward.
Any person involved in a recording, even if the recording is not in their possession, can ask for a citizens' regulatory body to review a recording and publicly confirm the accuracy of the reasons it needs to be classified for and if there are any parts of the recording that could be declassified.
17. What if no existing legislator wants to wear a body camera or give up any privacy?
If the legislators have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear. It is anticipated that most existing legislators will not support such a pledge, otherwise they would have already live-streamed and recorded their work-related activities by now. It is actually expected they will put roadblocks in place to deny such transparency legislation from being adopted. Humanity has had video recording capabilities for over a century, but no powerful rulers with plenty of resources, such as presidents, monarchs, or ministers, agreed to record their own work. For over a decade people have had live-streaming capable phones and free platforms, but no legislator, to date, had willingly fully streamed or recorded their own work.
The hope is for the citizens to demand from the upcoming or existing legislators to wear such body cameras. If the citizens popularize the idea of body cameras for the legislators, there are better chances for the candidates who agree to wear body cameras to become legislators.
18. Does this pledge apply only to legislators/politicians/royalty/ministers/governors?
While this pledge is intended for the legislators, it's the legislators' duty to make sure they apply suitable parts of the pledge to everyone who is responsible for creating the laws, applying/enforcing them, or being funded from taxpayers' funds to perform activities that affect any of the constituents. Similar pledge should include people with careers like police officers, teachers, prison guards, military, judges, prosecutors, public defense lawyers, bylaw officers, publicly funded scientists, law advisors, international organizations that claim authority, etc. After adhering to the self-transparency pledge, the lawmakers of each country will be responsible for equipping all those publicly paid employees with the tools needed to monitor their activities and meet standards similar to the ones presented here.
19. How could the legislators be held accountable by this, if there is so much footage that no one can view all of it?
Having all the footage of the legislators available does not make them accountable, but it could open ways to new ideas, such as having public catalogs/polls for each legislator and examples of the inconsistencies in the speech or actions of the said lawmaker, which the public can downvote on, thus popularizing inconsistencies and helping the public understand what a legislator does. The legislators could also be provided with easy options to answer such polls and publicly address the inconsistencies in their actions.
20. What should the process be if a legislator is accused of breaking the pledge?
If there are laws in place to enforce the pledge, then the legislator can be suspended until the trial completes. If there are no laws enforcing the pledge, then it's up to the constituents to publicize the evidence, and not support the legislator, if they so choose.
21. How demanding is it for a legislator to maintain this level of transparency?
For the legislators, it is a matter of mounting and dismounting the body camera or phone every day of work, charging it and button selecting when the recording starts/stops or changes modes; all these can be done within a few seconds each day. Writing and publishing a summary of the classified calls of the day should not take more than a few minutes unless lots of the recordings are being classified, which generally means the classification rules are too lax. All these actions, which should take from a few seconds to a few minutes a day, are enough to meet the Self Transparency Pledge and should be considered among the required duties of the position. If regulatory bodies or public vigilance committees are established to help the legislators classify/declassify the information, obtain approval to change the recording mode, manage the storage of the footage, then for every 100 legislators approximately 3 to 5 new jobs could be created. However, such a high level of constant access to classified information should apply mostly to the head of state and main governing body.
22. What if no one who is mentally or physically fit to be a legislator wants to become one under the Self Transparency Pledge?
In the unlikely scenario that not enough fit people want to become legislators under the Self Transparency Pledge and the pay and benefits are high enough for one to retire after serving as a legislator, then, as a civic duty, the legislators could be randomly appointed from the constituents, on a short term basis (3 to 6 months), as in some countries citizens are required to perform jury duty activities. It is understandable that a legislator who takes the Self Transparency Pledge will openly expose their own biases and thinking for everyone to see, which can affect the legislator's livelihood going forward, that's why the laws should guarantee these legislators that, if they are being transparent, once they are not a legislator any longer, their income will automatically be topped up to a minimum/average income of the jurisdiction they made laws for, by the jurisdiction they made laws for.
23. What would a constituents regulatory body be?
A constituents regulatory body would be an optional group of contituents to oversee the video streaming/reconding process. It can either be formed from hired constituents or from randomly named constituents, who are provided the proper training and clearance to perform the regulatory body's duties. Examples of functions of such regulatory bodies, which may differ based on the level of governance, are:
- determine whether or not existing video footage should be classified;
- set the time period a recording should be classified for;
- set the storage requirements for the existing footage;
- flag suspicious activities or review suspicious activities submitted by the public in regards to a legislator's recording of the work-related activities and refer such activities to a tribunal;
- provide the legislators with the approval to change the recording mode of their body camera (in case the law dictates that the legislators cannot change the recording mode of their body camera by themselves, but they need to ask for approval to do so from a controller who is on “standby” for such potential events). The legislator would be required to provide justification as to why the recording mode should be changed, then the regulatory body will document that request.
24. What if I want to become a legislator and streaming my campaign discussions and strategy would be too disadvantageous to me and cause my competition to win instead?
Yes, live streaming or releasing some of the video footage during a campaign to become a legislator, puts at risk a candidate's strategy and may reduce their opportunity to win. A candidate who adheres to the Self Transparency Pledge is to not live stream sensitive parts of the campaign, but to record them in personal mode and treat the footage as classified (description on how to handle it is in FAQ #16). Same applies for existing legislators who run to be re-elected, they can classify parts of their campaign, unless there is existing legislation in place to enforce all the candidates to live stream their campaigns.
25. Why should I obtain proof of my voting preferences?
Both, as a constituent and as a legislator, even if the votes are secret, one should be able to prove what one’s own voting options and ultimate choices were. Constituents may vote for whom they wish to become a legislator, while legislators may vote when creating the laws. For full transparency, all parties involved in the process of determining the legislators and the laws, should have personal proof of all the votes they registered.
26. Where can I find translations of these pages in other languages?
Please use available online tools to automatically translate these pages to other languages and spread them in your community.
27. Where can I get promotional materials from for the transparency pledge?
You can create any promotional material as you see fit or use any of the existing media (selftransparency.org/media) to make your own signs, banners, t-shirts, etc.
28. Why doesn't this pledge and FAQs cover all the details?
As a disclaimer, no lawyer was involved in writing this, nor are these guidelines to be confused with actual laws. If you are a legislator who professes to adhere to the Self Transparency Pledge and try to find loopholes in the pledge or the FAQs, then... you probably should not be in a position to be making rules for other people. When you're in doubt in regards to what to do, try to select the most transparent option available, or use common sense.
29. How can I contact the author of this pledge?
The best way to let the author of this pledge know about your related ideas or changes/improvements is by using the #selftransparency tag on social media platforms.
30. How do I know if the text of the pledge or FAQs was edited?
The text on this page is not to be edited without publicly storing the previous versions, the date when the text was edited, and the changes that were made from the previous version. Current version: 'FAQ - v1 - July 1 2023'. Previous versions: 'N/A'.