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

Posted by Soulskill on 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.'"

18 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. But... by msauve · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:But... by Frobnicator · · Score: 4, 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.

      --
      //TODO: Think of witty sig statement
    2. Re:But... by bloodhawk · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While I certainly don't trust Corporates or governments with power, I trust the average person with power to monitor me a 1000 time less. The average moron has no respect for anyone elses privacy or rights and thinks what they find acceptable trumps everyone elses rights to decency.

    3. Re:But... by ozmanjusri · · 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.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    4. Re:But... by laejoh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you want to know more, read Gödel, Esher and Bach!

  2. So.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't be a glasshole.

  3. If only such a list existed for cell phones by Publiu5 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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

  4. That should do it! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Funny

    I expect that this initiative will be 136.24% more efficient than the already foolproof 'don't be evil' mandate that Google follows...

  5. They must be new here by sandbagger · · Score: 4, 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?

    --
    ---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
  6. Glassholio by CopaceticOpus · · 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.

  7. Re:Degausse by LordKronos · · 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?

  8. Re:Little Red LED by iggymanz · · Score: 4, 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

  9. Be Rude by TrollstonButterbeans · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
  10. Google by pitchpipe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google Tells Glass Users Not To Be 'Creepy Or Rude' ... and then they reminded users that they'll be watching so they'll know.

    --
    Look where all this talking got us, baby.
  11. Needs a recording LED, like everything else by Etcetera · · Score: 4, 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.

    --
    Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
  12. better list by slashmydots · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1. don't buy it
    2. get a life outside of social networks and the internet

  13. Black Mirror - The Entire History of You by Any+Web+Loco · · Score: 4, Informative

    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?

  14. Re:Q about glass by DrXym · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thank goodness there is absolutely no way known to science or man of disabling a small LED.