Should We Be Afraid of Google Glass? 307
An anonymous reader writes "An article at TechCrunch bemoans the naysayers of ubiquitous video camera headsets, which seems like a near-term certainty whether it comes in the form of Google Glass or a similar product. The author points out, rightly, that surveillance cameras are already everywhere, and increasingly sophisticated government drones and satellites mean you're probably on camera more than you think already. 'But there's something about being caught on video, not by some impersonal machine but by another human being, that sticks in people's craws and makes them go irrationally berserk.' However, he also seems happy to trade privacy for security, which may not be palatable to others. He references a time he was mugged in Mexico as well as a desire to keep an eye on abuses of authority from police and others. 'If pervasive, ubiquitous networked cameras ultimately make public privacy impossible, which seems likely, then at least we can balance the scales by ensuring that we have two-way transparency between the powerful and the powerless.'"
Re:For a Safe and Secure Society (Score:5, Interesting)
"ubiquitous cameras everywhere recording everything at all times" is already happening and it has nothing to do with Google Glasses.
If you care about your privacy, Glass is the least of your concerns - there are already many ways to record everything secretly. And, if you want to invade people's privacy like this, Glass is the last thing you should use since it is so conspicuous.
Britain already went through this debate as they installed their ubiquitous CCVC network. Privacy lost.
no. (Score:4, Interesting)
it will just be a transition.
soon enough waving your dick around on a video that's on the internet will not matter one bit.
basically, when there's embarrassing shit about everyone on the net it will not matter one bit. however, it might be bad for your business if you're caught bullshitting every day. but uh, I can't see that as too bad to be honest. cops, robbers, mcdonalds employees, teachers and public servants would at least be expecting to get fucked over if they try to fuck over their clientele.
point I'm trying to get at.. is that there's still a lot of behavioral tabus in the west - which leads to hypocrisy.
Re:balancing the scales (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, may be so, however, I still won't tolerate you coming to my home, to my gym, to my office, to my restaurant, to my pub, etc. wearing a camera. You can choose to loose your privacy somewhere else.
You own a gym, office, restaurant and a pub? Lucky you. Let me rephrase it for you, if this becomes popular as your all-purpose device like the smart phone that people use for all sorts of things and expect to be able to use anywhere they go then society will change. I think 20 years ago it was unthinkable that everybody would carry a "spy camera" everywhere they go, now it's completely normal. If you refuse to be in the same place as Google Glass, you'll be the one asked to leave.
Irrationally berserk: Seattle's 'Creepy Cameraman' (Score:5, Interesting)
GeekWire: 'Creepy Cameraman' pushes limits of public surveillance - a glimpse of the future? [geekwire.com] (includes interesting video)
Re:For a Safe and Secure Society (Score:4, Interesting)
Ubiquitous cameras everywhere has also done more to prevent injustice then to perpetrate it.
"Oh no someone might get a picture of me looking stupid" versus everyone definitely getting a picture of police abuse.
Re:wearable displays, not so much wearable computi (Score:5, Interesting)
That's not a bad idea.
But what could possibly be bad about random strangers walking around with cameras attached to their heads which take pictures and instantly upload them to google? Google is building a security camera network made of meat.
Re:How Guys Will Use Google Glass (Score:5, Interesting)
Or like this. [vimeo.com]
Re:Jay Leno Re:balancing the scales (Score:4, Interesting)
You are not arguing against tech like google glass, you are arguing against a fascist police state. If the government, law, and courts are not set up to be abused by the rich then taking pictures in public cannot be used as a weapon.
Improve society; don't try to suppress technology.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Google OWNS you (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem is not "people" recording as much as images sent to Google'a servers.
Well, no - both are problems. I don't want random individuals recording my interactions with them.
Google IS the bigger problem, admittedly. For one thing I'm pretty sure they never truly delete anything even if you delete it from your account. I've come to believe that because of an experience I recently had. One of our users had uploaded an ical file containing her calendar from another system. She then changed her mind and cleared the calendar of everything, following Google's instructions (I verified this) - so the calendar was completely empty. a couple months later, for collaboration's sake she went to her old system and again exported an ical file. Google would not allow her to upload the events, though, stating "these items have already been uploaded" even though they were not on her Google calendar anymore.
FYI the solution to the upload problem was changing the sequence number for each event in the ical file, as others around the web have found.