Google Tells Glass Users Not To Be 'Creepy Or Rude' 341
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.'"
But... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Creepy and rude nerds are their target market. How's that going to work?
Clearly I'm not the only one thinking "too late".
Re: (Score:2)
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...
Re: (Score:3)
Obviously not true. Apple has always struggled to gain acceptance with their products, and didn't start succeeding until they actually offered the superior product too. Nerds and the general user base also share one other thing: both tend to like the cheaper option that, while less polished, gives the greatest personal freedom. Witness Android vs. iOS. Very clear what the better product is, but Android is the PC to Apple's Mac.
It turns out that cool, sociable people are also annoying and less popular than t
Re: (Score:3)
Curious if you ever look in the mirror.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:But... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Except that they don't necessarily offer the superior product, just the most expensive, trendy one. This actually appeals more to those 'sociable' people the gp refers to, because, for them, social acceptance is the most important factor in every decision they make. They buy apple because their rich friends did. Often, such people aren't very intelligent when it comes to technology, or even basic concepts like reason and logic, because, frankly, they haven't had to be in order to survive.. Often, these p
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Lock in and synergy with other devices are both rational evaluations. I have a mac, Apple TV, and airplay speakers at home, so an iphone is much more functional for me than an android. Not to mention all my music is in the itunes cloud Andy current app library. For me an iphone is a rational choice because it has better features than an android because it plays nice with my other toys, and is a better price because I don't have to buy new apps.
Re: (Score:3)
The irrational decision was to get locked in to iOS in the first place, and to then not switch to a Nexus 5 which is better than the current iPhone but half the price so you can re-buy all the locked-in apps anyway. If you buy Android apps you can take them with you to new devices from different manufacturers in the future, and even different operating systems as some others now support running Android code.
Also, unless you own a Mac you need to install iTunes to sync media from your computers, which is a g
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know, I use Android because I must, but the iPhone and iPad seem like better products in most measurable ways. However, as Apple has always done, there are a few big gotchas. Price, closed software market, and Apple deciding what kind of apps are/are not acceptable for me. Those last two are showstoppers, I can overlook price for a better product.
I won't ignore that social factors are a big factor in Apple purchases, that's certainly true and Apple definitely uses it to their advantage.
But going bac
Re: (Score:2)
Keep in mind in all this, the camera is just proof of what you saw and likely remembered. It's not like goggle glass is seeing something you didn't see or recording something you couldn't remember. Of course once any like system becomes more universal, the reality of sorting through the petabytes of data generated because quite difficult and in reality just becomes an individuals proof of events especially when dealing with salespersons, government agencies, police and of course passing unruly strangers, a
Re: (Score:2)
Your own link shows that your source is shit, maybe you should read it? Location tracking is considered a risky behavior, and Android apps collected MORE data, more easily than iOS apps did. Second, it's from a company trying to sell you... a service to manage apps.
Re:But... (Score:5, Interesting)
which is why Glass will never take off.
Consumer products are only successful if they're marketed to cool, sociable people, not loser nerds with no lives.
I'm their target market.
I'm not a creepy nerd either. I'm a middle-aged business man with a nice wife, a nice house, a reasonable car, and a reasonable job that requires me to inspect and manage engineering works in progress.
I have always obtained and used the best mobile recording tools for the job: Digital cameras as soon as they were available. Those Olympus electronic voice recorders/transcribers. I still have a Compaq Concerto tablet PC from the early '90s, The first Palm Pilot, and several later iterations of the marque. Win CE PDAs and phones. Nokia N800s. Several varieties of Android phones and tablets. If a tool saves me time, it makes me money.
If I could get a Glass, I'd be using it now. It's a tool, not a toy and will succeed or fail based on how good a tool it is.
You can call me a Glasshole if you like. I don't care, as long as it's making my job easier and better.
Re: But... (Score:3)
Here here.
I just do a bunch of DIY around the house. Being able to record things as I take them apart or assemble them would be a huge timesaver and make it a lot easier to seek advice/share experiences.
The benefits of doing this in a chemical lab would be even greater.
Re: (Score:3)
My dad is a home inspector and I was talking to him the other day about how amazing Glass would be for his job. He often has to climb into difficult spots and take pictures or movies. This would be a dream tool for him.
Re: (Score:2)
Define 'loser'. If 'loser' means, "never gets to touch genitals with another", then I suppose you're right, though maybe you can explain why anyone beyond the age of 16 should care. However, if 'loser' means "get raped by family court/false DV accusations/degenerate adult-age 'highschool' drama/STDs/divorce settlements", then I'd say the celibate nerds are the winners, especially the men.
Re: (Score:2)
Vibrators and fleshlights are very successful products for loser nerds.
How does spending all your money/free time trying to attract (usually) the most superficial/uninteresting members of the opposite sex make you a "winner"?
Re: (Score:2)
Re:But... (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate replying to myself, but since we don't have a way to edit...
The ones with the cameras have the power. Governments with CCTV have power. Corporate overlords with CCTV have power.
Protesters recording police abuses have power if they record it, but if they don't record it usually they lose.
Activists recording business abuses have power when challenged since they can expose problems, but no recordings and they find themselves sued to oblivion.
Drivers in Russia with dashboard cameras have power when people jump in front of their vehicles.
When the people have the cameras, they have the power. Sadly many individuals equate cameras with power so they feel powerless when they see another individual with a camera. Just give everybody cameras, let them record everything. Power to the people, and all that.
Re:But... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What is the individual who records you going to do to you? Post video of you fetching your mail on the internet?
It is only a matter of time before everybody's actions get posted online, complete with geotagging and facial recognition. Curious as to what your employees were doing at 2AM last Tuesday? Just look it up!
Then you can either fire all your employees because all of them do stuff you don't like at some point, or you can decide there are better things to do with your time.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
In public, I want ubiquitous recording BY THE INDIVIDUALS.
You seem to have a serious problem with understanding that what YOU want
may not be what others want.
Some people are not going to ask you politely to quit taking video of them,
they are just going to take your device and smash it. Don't believe me ?
Try taking video of a group of bikers and see how that works out for you.
( you will want to make sure your health insurance is in proper order and covers major
facial trauma before you undertake this experiment )
.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I'd rather avoid people who make baseless accusations than live in a police state.. It doesn't matter who does the recording.
Black Mirror - The Entire History of You (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
There is a great fun 1-hour TV show called Black Mirror - The Entire History of You which deals with what it would be like to be able to record every minute of your private life and review it at any stage. Didn't have entirely positive things to say. Worth a watch one evening - might temper your view?
Honestly, I think what has to change is our expectations. The only reason people value privacy is because we're accustomed to having it. We don't want people to see us naked, or doing things our parents might not approve of (even if they've already died of old age), and so on. And yet, everybody does that stuff (in one way or another).
Sooner or later recording and storage technology will reach a point where we just won't have a choice. Everything, everywhere will be recorded, stored forever, indexed, an
Re: (Score:3)
Why would you want to peek in my bathroom window? If you want to get blind, there are easier and less painful ways...
Re: (Score:2)
The biggest joke will probably be that both Google's and Baidu's glasses will probably be made in the same factory.
I wouldn't be too surprised either if the design is curiously similar.
Re: (Score:2)
Except acting "rich" and "arrogant" in a Rolls Royce won't send you to the nearest hospital.
Re:But... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Wow... it sounds like it's the non Glass-wearing crowd who are the ones in need of a little lesson in public behaviour.
I think they get it quite right. You are not suggesting that Google should sell a GG + gun combination? Armed glassholes who give the unwashed masses a little lesson in public behaviour?
Somehow I doubt the parent was suggesting that a gunfight in a bar was the solution to somebody being annoyed about somebody else owning a camera. Maybe live and let live is a better solution? The last time I checked everybody at the local bar was carrying a cell phone camera, and I've yet to see somebody get punched in the face over it.
So.... (Score:4, Funny)
Don't be a glasshole.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Better a glasshole than an ihole
Re: (Score:2)
NO! There's actually a much worse video that just sprung to my mind.
Thanks a bunch, was that really necessary?
If only such a list existed for cell phones (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Please, the list for transplants is long enough as it is.
That should do it! (Score:5, Funny)
It's bound to fail in a society that (Score:2)
considers manners and politeness to be passe', and where bureaucratic rules and regulations are the norms.
Re: (Score:2)
considers manners and politeness to be passe', and where bureaucratic rules and regulations are the norms.
Wait, why are we dragging Britain into this?
Re: (Score:2)
Because they started it. The whole "CCTV everywhere" crap.
You mean like this? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Did you see the Asian guy "oooh you have google glass...".
as the comments say enjoying a nice nerdgasm.
They must be new here (Score:5, Insightful)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Only 'til they are beaten into a pulp a few times. People learn differently and at different speeds, maybe it just takes a few good punches to make them learn.
NO (Score:2)
If only... (Score:2)
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)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
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)
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.
What will places that ban it do when it's unseen? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Google (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
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...
Re: (Score:2)
You forgot to welcome our Glass-wearing overlords and you didn't ask whether it runs Linux. But don't take my word for it, let's better wait for Netcraft to confirm it.
Google tells Glass users (Score:2)
eh hem... (Score:2)
Needs a recording LED, like everything else (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:3)
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)
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?
Re: (Score:3)
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
Best advice (Score:2)
Don't use it.
Sounds like Mobiles (Score:2)
better list (Score:5, Insightful)
2. get a life outside of social networks and the internet
Load of garbage (Score:2)
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)
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)
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.
If you don't want to be creepy or rude (Score:2)
Who needs Glass ? (Score:4, Funny)
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 :-(
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. And my old video camera had a menu option to turn off that little red LED.
Re:Little Red LED (Score:5, Funny)
you'll be happy to know Google Glass has similar option to turn the red on, activated by a hard punch to the a face of the glasshole
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Sounds like you graduated from the Sean Penn school of social interaction.
Re: (Score:3)
because the people who made it didn't want it. That's why.
That should tell you a lot about the mentality of the people who created it.
Re: (Score:2)
IIRC something like that is mandatory for recording devices around here, but I may be wrong.
Re:Degausse (Score:5, Funny)
Working on a ranged degausser for any glass user pointing it in my direction.
Wow. I didn't realize google glass was storing its data on magnetic media. Or do you mean that the eye piece is actually a mini CRT?
Re: (Score:3)
Q about glass (Score:2)
I assumed that when google glass is recording, a noticeable LED is lit on the front. is this the case? Similarly, recording isn't on by default, but rather turned on by the user at specific intervals. Yes / no?
A truly scary situation would be if recording were always on, and it was always capturing / filling / refreshing a 8GB buffer or something like that. This would mean at any point you could look at your glass and flip through the last 10-15mins of video. This would mean that whenever a glass person loo
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The camera exists on the device. You should assume that people will have rooted it so that any notificiation of recording will be disabled while still allowing recording.
Re:Q about glass (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
I assumed that when google glass is recording, a noticeable LED is lit on the front.
People with creepy and rude intentions will stick some tape over it.
(Duh)
Re: Q about glass (Score:3, Informative)
They already side load. They've (as in users/devs/hackers) have already figured out a way to record without any indication and even made an app to snap pictures with a simple wink (I believe Google may have introduced the ability to do that also now, but the users introduced it long ago when Google said it wasn't possible)
Re: (Score:3)
Obviously. How much battery life or storage space do you think would need to fit in this device to be permanently recording? Permanent recording, or even frequent recording by user choice, is not practical in a device this size with current technology.
You don't need to be a rocket engineer to connect it to a larger battery in your pocket. If people want it, someone will make it.
Re: (Score:2)
Of course, I'm talking about spray paint.
Re: (Score:3)
Yep, because threatening to spraypaint and/or lase someone in the face because they wear Glass isn't violent or out of proportion at all?
Re: (Score:2)
Use it as a reminder that you are almost always being recorded in public. I was bored at the mall, waiting for my wife to do whatever it is one does in curio stores and started counting cameras. I gave up in the low double digits when i started seeing very subtle cameras and realized for every one I saw, there was another one I had initially missed.
Glassholes are your friend, they remind you that big brother is always watching.
Re: (Score:3)
A lot of those points could be made about the iPod. Can you imagine yourself listening to one at the dinner table? At dinner with a date at a restaurant?
There's nothing stopping people from taking off their Glass when it is socially inappropriate to wear it.
Re: (Score:3)
"Friends don't really give a shit about each other," says the Google Glasses owner.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure. But video from those CCTV cameras don't readily get uploaded to youtube.
Youtube (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
http://www.youtube.com/results... [youtube.com]
"About 2,720,000 results"
Re: (Score:3)
There is a difference between "no reasonable expectation of privacy" and "reasonable expectation to be monitored every single moment of your life".
People and quantum particles have one thing in common: They behave differently if observed. Want proof? Take the average car driver and watch his reaction to a police car starting to drive behind him. They don't want anything from him, he has done nothing wrong, still he starts to feel uneasy. Nothing really changed, it's just that he feels now that he's being mo
Re: (Score:2)
People are mad about the cameras too. But the cameras are less fragile and the people who put them are harder to find.
The Glass will give those mad people the chance to address their anger in a less passive way.