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"There was a time when one old eccentric guy with a notebook could do something important to science. Now even the resources of a major university are often not enough."
- Jerry Pournelle

Alibi Archive  
  A recording made of transmissions from a personal implant that perceived everything that happened to that individual.  

On this alternate Earth, everyone had a Companion implant that constantly transmitted the minutia of your life to an archive.

"Since the day you were born, you've had a personal recording cube in the alibi-archive pavilion adjacent to this very Council building. And it has recorded everything you've done, every moment of your life, as transmitted by your Companion. "And ... every day of your life, you enjoy the peace and safety made possible by that very recording... You know that as you walk at night, the chances of you being the victim of robbery or murder ... are almost zero, because there's no way to get away with such a crime."
Technovelgy from Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax), by Robert J. Sawyer.
Published by Analog Science Fiction in 2003
Additional resources -

The images and other data flowing from an implant into the alibi-archive could also be "tapped" or viewed by someone else.

"...the transmissions from Scholar Huld's Companion are being monitored directly by a living, breathing human being as they are received at the alibi-archive pavillion..."

Thanks to Chris Johnston for pointing this one out.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax)
  More Ideas and Technology by Robert J. Sawyer
  Tech news articles related to Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax)
  Tech news articles related to works by Robert J. Sawyer

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