Which sci-fi utopia stories exactly are you referring to? Please remind me, because all the scifi with ubiquitous surveillace I recall are about dystopias instead.

Right, this is more like Black Mirror S1E3 "The Entire History of You"

I can't recall exactly but it may have been The Light of Other Days

I believe The Light of Other Days has slow-glass that you expose to a scene, it drinks it in, and then plays it back later.