Eric Schmidt: Google Glass Critics 'Afraid of Change,' Society Will Adapt 331
curtwoodward writes "Eric Schmidt came to Harvard this week to discuss his new book, but many students really wanted to know more about the implications for privacy and social interaction once Google Glass starts hitting the market. Schmidt cautioned against jumping to the worst conclusions, saying that society always tends to adapt to new technologies — and he's hoping for etiquette rather than government regulation. Of course, that's what you would say if you used to run a company that has been fined and paid settlements to regulators for the way it scoops up data and tracks users. But Schmidt also doesn't have much patience for critics: 'Criticisms are inevitably from people who are afraid of change, or who have not figured out that there will be an adaptation of society.'"
Re:Big words... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Big words... (Score:3, Informative)
and you'd be going up against a guy that directly controls your own livelihood, a man who as you describe is a vindictive bastard and the billionaire head of an advertising giant tentacled throughout pretty much everything on the web.
He'll get muzzled by the only people that can, if/when glass fails and/or when google has a bad quarter and the investors come calling looking for a publicly visible head on a spike.
Re:Big words... (Score:4, Informative)
Either CNET crossed his creepy line [telegraph.co.uk], or maybe he shouldn't have been doing some things in the first place [eff.org].
Re:The problem is not the product itself (Score:5, Informative)
So where does that lead us to? A device which watches us all, which sends much of that data to central services provided by Google, where that data will most likely be stored and can most likely be accessed by law enforcement agencies.
This is often repeated, but realize that it can't record all the time. There's not enough CPU power, storage, or always-on network connectivity. This was an intentional decision to get it into the form factor at the right price point. Typically it's for still pictures and streaming really tiny pictures over Google Talk. If your strip club or movie theatre has WiFi in it and allows you to access in the venue, you might end up streaming postage stamps to people, at best.
Plus it will be pretty obvious when you take pictures, since you have to touch it active and say "Glass, take picture". The bouncer will likely throw you out at that point.
It basically doesn't do any more that your ordinary cell phone, and people pretend to text with those while filiming, and they have better net connectivity and local storage, even with no WiFi access.
That is exactly what will happen with igoggles. (Score:4, Informative)
People (drunk, ignorant, criminal, other, or any combination of the aforementioned) will attempt to shove it up your ass...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/steve-mann-attacked-paris-mcdonalds-digital-eye-glass-photos_n_1680263.html [huffingtonpost.com]