Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Google Technology

Google Tells Glass Users Not To Be 'Creepy Or Rude' 341

Posted by Soulskill
from the non-glass-users-can-be-as-creepy-as-they-like dept.
An anonymous reader writes "One of the biggest worries about the rise of wearable computing is the ease with which random strangers will be able to record your actions without your knowing. Right now, it's pretty easy to tell if somebody's holding up their cellphone to take some video. But when everybody's wearing Google Glass, or something similar, it will become harder to tell. This has led to preemptive bans on Glass in certain places. Now, Google has published a list of Do's and Don'ts to tell Glass users how they should behave politely in public. Do: ask for permission before recording people. Don't: ignore the world around you, expect that people won't notice, or wear it during a cage fight. Most importantly, don't 'be creepy or rude.' Google says, 'Standing alone in the corner of a room staring at people while recording them through Glass is not going to win you any friends.'"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Google Tells Glass Users Not To Be 'Creepy Or Rude' More

Google Tells Glass Users Not To Be 'Creepy Or Rude'

Comments Filter:

  • But... (Score:5, Funny)

    by msauve (701917) on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @11:07PM (#46282431)
    Creepy and rude nerds are their target market. How's that going to work?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx (966435)

      Creepy and rude nerds are their target market. How's that going to work?

      Clearly I'm not the only one thinking "too late".

    • Creepy and rude nerds are their target market. How's that going to work?

      Not to mention every teenage boy that wants x-ray vision...

  • So.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @11:10PM (#46282443)

    Don't be a glasshole.

  • If only such a list existed for cell phones (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Publiu5 (3542707) on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @11:12PM (#46282455)
    While the cellphone and Glass are not the same tech, they do seem to share similar bad habits (ie making you tune out the world around you, especially when crossing a street) in how people may ultimately use. So, maybe a similar list should be made to address the do's and dont's of cellphones, maybe in app form

  • That should do it! (Score:5, Funny)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus (1223518) on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @11:13PM (#46282459) Journal
    I expect that this initiative will be 136.24% more efficient than the already foolproof 'don't be evil' mandate that Google follows...

  • considers manners and politeness to be passe', and where bureaucratic rules and regulations are the norms.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS (557649)

      considers manners and politeness to be passe', and where bureaucratic rules and regulations are the norms.

      Wait, why are we dragging Britain into this?

  • They must be new here (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sandbagger (654585) on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @11:25PM (#46282527)

    It will be used to make porn. It will be used to game casinos. It will be used to record cops. Someone will use it to case a place for a robbery. It will be used in divorces. It will be used to document various offences as decreed by Jezebel. It will be used by police to enable face recognition of people like they do licence plates.

    What the fuck do they think will happen?

  • Glassholio (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CopaceticOpus (965603) on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @11:26PM (#46282529)

    It's very smart of Google to recognize that "Glasshole" is an inevitable slang term to be applied to some (most?) Glass users. They're trying to get ahead of the term and define it to apply to only the worst kinds of users.

    Still, they face an uphill battle if they hope to create a positive public image for Glass. If only 1 in 10,000 Glass users behaves in a socially unacceptable way, that one person will be the focus of endless sensationalist news coverage.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by thegarbz (1787294)

      No. "Glasshole" is just a term created by a bunch of individuals so obsessed with themselves that they think that every Google glass user is recording them all the time when the reality is you're very likely to be an incredibly boring nobody. It's amazing how obsessive people are about their own privacy because "OMG Camera" without realising that if someone wanted to video tape them without their knowledge there's nothing they can do to prevent it. Seriously there's hundreds of small spy cam style products

    • Re:Glassholio (Score:4, Interesting)

      by AmiMoJo (196126) * <.ten.3dlrow. .ta. .ojom.> on Wednesday February 19, 2014 @09:04AM (#46284957) Homepage

      If only 1 in 10,000 Glass users behaves in a socially unacceptable way, that one person will be the focus of endless sensationalist news coverage.

      I'm pretty sure more than 1 in 10,000 iPad users behaves in a socially unacceptable way. Go to a London exhibit and you won't be able to see it because of the wall of iPads taking photos. Didn't seem to do sales any harm though.

  • Google being social retards (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @11:39PM (#46282625)

    Humorous that Google is having to tell people to not be creepy or rude. They've finally woken up to the fact that Glass is inherently antisocial, just like all those people who hover over their phones in public as they do constant texting/facebook updates/emails. If someone's gonna do that at a dinner out then they might as well have stayed at home on the bed eating dorito's and watching some mindless flick on tv.

    Commonsense bottom line: If you're wearing Glass when you're supposed to be doing something social, then it should be taken off. Everyone should understand in their guts what a social gaffe it is to wear a rig that could be constantly recording while doing something in a supposedly-relaxing social situation - like a party. If they don't then they come out on the lower end of the bell-curve for empathy and on the higher end of the bell-curve for the massively socially inept.

  • NO (Score:2)

    by Sigvatr (1207234)
    Don't tell me what to do, Google!

  • George Zimmerman or Trayvon martin had been using Google Glass at the time.
    Think of all the political disruption we would have avoided.

  • How do I get what I want, not what Google wants? (Score:3)

    by Gavin Scott (15916) on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @11:48PM (#46282689)

    Google with their insistence on a camera-based social-media augmented-reality creepy-invasive experience is going to set back the cause of direct human-computer interaction by years.

    Honestly I don't want a camera in my "glass". I want a link to something like my desktop computing resources. It's an intimate experience between me and the computer, not between my computer and the environment around me. Sure there are some cute apps you can do with the camera, but the creepy factor is going to make people as self-conscious and obvious as a Segway rider (and we know how that turned out).

    When I can PAY for a device that has MY interests at heart rather than the latest data power grab by Google then I'll be interested.

    Connect me with the Internet then get the fuck out of the way. I don't need you to mediate every interaction I have, not only with information from the net but with the real world around me.

    G.

    • Google with their insistence on a camera-based social-media augmented-reality creepy-invasive experience is going to set back the cause of direct human-computer interaction by years.

      Honestly I don't want a camera in my "glass". I want a link to something like my desktop computing resources. It's an intimate experience between me and the computer, not between my computer and the environment around me. Sure there are some cute apps you can do with the camera, but the creepy factor is going to make people as self-conscious and obvious as a Segway rider (and we know how that turned out).

      When I can PAY for a device that has MY interests at heart rather than the latest data power grab by Google then I'll be interested.

      Connect me with the Internet then get the fuck out of the way. I don't need you to mediate every interaction I have, not only with information from the net but with the real world around me.

      G.

      If it weren't Google it would be some other company because while you don't want this functionality there are no doubt many who do.

      I would like the functionality that you describe - but I have no compunction whatsoever about recording with the same device, my son playing sports, for example.

      The technology is there and like any other technology there are good uses and bad.

  • Be Rude (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TrollstonButterbeans (2914995) on Wednesday February 19, 2014 @12:15AM (#46282825)
    Be rude. Because this idea is stupid.

    You think in 15 years everyone won't be recording all the time? They will be.

    Whether it is Google Contact Lense, Apple Retina Display Phone or Acme Eyeballs --- there are going to be cameras everywhere.

    So let us adjust.
  • Ultimately, technology is going to progress far enough for the form factor of this thing to be indiscernible to all but the most attentive of individuals. Places will be able to politely ask that patrons not use such devices, but unless they install xray and full-body scanners at the entrances to them, I'm not terribly sure what they are going to do about users of such technology when they don't even know for sure who even has it on their person, let alone who is actively using it.. We are, I think, less

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS (557649)
      We'll pass laws to prevent the sale to the general public if they lack a anti-concealment feature (light, color, shape, whatever). Police, of course, will be free to use them. So don't worry about that.

  • Google (Score:5, Funny)

    by pitchpipe (708843) on Wednesday February 19, 2014 @12:32AM (#46282879)
    Google Tells Glass Users Not To Be 'Creepy Or Rude' ... and then they reminded users that they'll be watching so they'll know.

    • They see you when you're sleeping
      They know when you're awake
      They know if you've been bad or good
      So be good for goodness sake

      Christmas carols have never been this creepy before...

  • Google tells Glass users not to use Glass.
  • Everyone (besides me) that actually has glass right now - show of hands...? Great, thanks. The rest of you - STFU & bite me.

  • Needs a recording LED, like everything else (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Etcetera (14711) on Wednesday February 19, 2014 @12:55AM (#46282987) Homepage

    Google needs to put in a hard-wired LED that's on when recording. Yes, you'll look like a Borg when you're recording, but that's a small price to pay for others' comfort.

    Can people still obscure it? Yes... but if I see someone walking around with a Google Glass *and* a bit of black electrical tape over the front, I know I'm dealing with a complete d-bag and can treat them accordingly.

    • Google needs to put in a hard-wired LED that's on when recording. Yes, you'll look like a Borg when you're recording, but that's a small price to pay for others' comfort.

      Can people still obscure it? Yes... but if I see someone walking around with a Google Glass *and* a bit of black electrical tape over the front, I know I'm dealing with a complete d-bag and can treat them accordingly.

      Finally we know why the terminators have red eyes!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rich0 (548339)

      If somebody wants to covertly record things, there are far more effective ways to do it than by wearing Glass. There are lots of ways to conceal cameras - why stick it on your face?

      • Exactly this.

        I find the juxtaposition of "you have no privacy in public" and "glassholes invade my privacy" by many a peculiar one. Not just based on the premise alone, but because most of them will complain that if they see a glasshole, they'll do/feel X.

        But how many people with smartphones whipped out recording video do they not care about because they can't easily see them? How many security cameras do they not care about because they're squirreled away? And how often do they wonder to themselves whet

  • Don't use it.

  • When mobiles came out there where similar rules to be said. People where making fun at people seemingly talking to them selves in public. Now days you can seem a whole dinner table swiping away and that's the old people !

  • better list (Score:5, Insightful)

    by slashmydots (2189826) on Wednesday February 19, 2014 @01:17AM (#46283071)
    1. don't buy it
    2. get a life outside of social networks and the internet

  • Right now, it's pretty easy to tell if somebody's holding up their cellphone to take some video.

    Yeah except that's not how people discretely take footage. Google is not the first company to introduce a camera into something wearable. There a literally hundreds of products out there that include wearable spy cameras. Yet people are freaking out about a device which has many other purposes, not to mention a shithouse battery life when recording.

    It's very easy to spot a Google Glass viewer who records everything, they stop every few minutes to put their glasses on charge.

  • Suddenly a problem? (Score:3)

    by bickerdyke (670000) on Wednesday February 19, 2014 @04:39AM (#46283925)

    While I can understand that people have a problem with being recorded everywhere and by everyone, why has this never been a problem with those camera sunglasses you can get in your "toys for spies and other grown up kids" shop for years now?

    These are actually designed to a) record more than a few moments of video and b) to do that hiden without arousing any suspiscion. And c) they are available for everyone for $30

    And all of a sudden everyone is up in arms that people could buy a $1500 device that can't record longer than a few minutes and is highly visible to make SECRET (or at least unnoticed) video recordings? Come on guys...

    The usual argument is the one about the slippery slope that the introduction of wearable video cameras will lead to ubiquitous video surveillance, but I can't see how that could lead there when wearable, hidden cameras is actually where we're comming from! Wearble cameras getting are getting bigger, more noticeable and less recording capacity and suddenly everyone is WORRIED?!?

  • Google Analytics (Score:3)

    by MrL0G1C (867445) on Wednesday February 19, 2014 @04:49AM (#46283987) Journal

    Don't be creepy says the creepiest company on the web, spying on people worldwide to a degree that I'm sure the NSA envies.

    Google analytics > Google glass, pot kettle black.

  • Don't buy Google Glass. It's inherently creepy and rude, at least within a social setting.

  • Who needs Glass ? (Score:4, Funny)

    by nukenerd (172703) on Wednesday February 19, 2014 @07:46AM (#46284651)
    FTFA :-

    Google says, 'Standing alone in the corner of a room staring at people while recording them through Glass is not going to win you any friends.'"

    Funny, that sounds like me at any social function, and that's without wearing Glass :-(

"Just think of a computer as hardware you can program." -- Nigel de la Tierre

Close