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Google Tries To Defuse Glass "Myths"

As reported by Beta News, Google has tried to answer some of the criticism that its Glass head-mounted system has inspired with a blog post outlining and explaining what it calls 10 "myths" about the system. Google's explanation probably won't change many minds, but in just a few years the need to defend head-worn input/output devices might seem quaint and backwards.

50 of 363 comments (clear)

  1. A lense cover by bit+trollent · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If Google had just included a lens cover then Glass would just be a status symbol for ultra-nerdy hipsters.

    With an uncovered camera always conspicuously pointed in everybody's face Google Glass is an unmistakable reminder of our Orwellian world.

    1. Re:A lense cover by Luckyo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Pointing a phone at faces is considered rude in many cultures specifically because it implies you're taking pictures. Vast majority of people who use phones point the camera at a downward angle, so all it could take pictures of is people's feet.

    2. Re:A lense cover by sahuxley · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Go into a bar or strip club and point your camera phone every direction you turn your head. See how long it takes for one of those "idiots" to knock you out.

    3. Re:A lense cover by JWSmythe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      People don't generally walk around holding up their phone like they're recording you. When they are, we have the opportunity to say "don't take my picture!" or "don't record me!'

      Google Glass is always pointed at the person they're talking to, and always gives the impression that they're recording.

      I like the pattern unlock. People's fingerprinted screens frequently give away their pattern, so the lock is worthless. Just look for the patterned smudge, and you're in.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    4. Re:A lense cover by Razgorov+Prikazka · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well said!
      There is a big difference between holding a phone vertically at eye hight (=most probably taking a picture) and the diagonal position used to crush candy or communicate via text or do other stuff.
      I think it is a sign on the wall that 99% of the criticism is about taking pictures and only 1% about things like distraction and so forth. It is all about consent and not knowing if someone is (not) taking a picture. And even if the wearer is not actively engaged in taking pictures, remote access tools might be able to take over. There is a reason I got the webcam taped off on my laptop...
      I just simply fail to see why a webcam strapped to a face is a nice idea.

      --
      rm -rf --no-preserve-root / ...and let /dev/null sort them out...
    5. Re:A lense cover by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Insightful

      yet idiots have no problems with phones being pointed at them.

      It's pretty obvious when a phone is being pointed *at* you instead of being used to play games/text/whatever.

      And it will provoke a reaction from "idiots". Try it and see.

      --
      No sig today...
    6. Re:A lense cover by peragrin · · Score: 2

      just play candy crush and other such touch and drag games and watch the pattern unlock vanish into a mess.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    7. Re:A lense cover by michelcolman · · Score: 2

      There was a time when people using mobile phones in the street were mugged not because the thief wanted their phone, but because people using mobile phones were considered to be antisocial snobs and deserved to get beaten up. People would sometimes just take the phone and throw it onto the floor to break it. Nowadays using a cell phone is the most normal thing in the world. When you were making a call using an earpiece, people used to wonder why you were talking to yourself while nowadays, when you really are talking to yourself, people will just assume you're making a phone call. The same will happen to glass.

    8. Re:A lense cover by currently_awake · · Score: 2

      Google sells information, we are the product. The more they know the more money they make. Google glass isn't about what the customer wants, it's all about spying. Putting a lens cap on google glass would undermine their ability to spy.

    9. Re:A lense cover by JWSmythe · · Score: 2

      I'm not quite sure how you got that from my post. No, I don't go around recoding people without their permission. People ask me to do it a lot, because they want some nice pictures or video to put online. I've deleted perfectly good pictures I've shot, because someone who I didn't have permission from got in the shot.

      And no, I won't own Google Glass, because ... well ... it's a waste of money. And I don't want to piss people off by making them think I'm recording them all the time.

      There are reasons I'd like to have a wearable video eyepiece, but Google Glass doesn't fulfill those requirements.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    10. Re:A lense cover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well said! There is a big difference between holding a phone vertically at eye hight (=most probably taking a picture) and the diagonal position used to crush candy or communicate via text or do other stuff. I think it is a sign on the wall that 99% of the criticism is about taking pictures and only 1% about things like distraction and so forth. It is all about consent and not knowing if someone is (not) taking a picture. And even if the wearer is not actively engaged in taking pictures, remote access tools might be able to take over. There is a reason I got the webcam taped off on my laptop... I just simply fail to see why a webcam strapped to a face is a nice idea.

      It's not only about taking pictures and video without consent, it is about the device doing it being connected to the immense data collection machine that is Google, with capabilities to aggregate and correlate, track and face-recognize.

    11. Re:A lense cover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Those devices would run afoul of wiretap laws that are already on the books. The problem here is that whether or not Google specifically provides the software to do the spying, they're providing the hardware to do it. We have no way of knowing when or if the devices are recording things, so there's going to be well justified paranoia. Big data has already run amok online, but this hardware is much more visible than a script running on a server is.

      And unlike the security cameras at the local store, there's no way of knowing where the files are going to wind up. A typical shop doesn't have the resources to keep footage on file indefinitely, so unless you're doing something suspicious, chances are good that it's going to be wiped within a month or two. And even then it's not likel to make its way out of the building unless there's a court case.

      Horse owners generally wound up buying cars because they were more cost effetive, reliable and expedient in the long term. Cars also weren't spying on people and creating a database of people's activities without their consent.

    12. Re:A lense cover by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Google Glass is always pointed at the person they're talking to, and always gives the impression that they're recording.

      No it doesn't. Recording with Glass requires you to say "okay glass, record a video". Recording is limited to 10 seconds, unless you are streaming it live as part of a video chat. In any case the LED flashes constantly while recording is in operation.

      Recording all the time is impossible anyway as the battery only lasts 45 minutes from fully charged. Maybe if the guy walks around with a really long USB cable attached to his head you would need to worry. Anyway, if someone wants to record you there are much better, more subtle ways to do it than making endless 10 second recordings or trying to stay within range of a wifi network for streaming to a G+ hangout.

      --
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      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    13. Re:A lense cover by JWSmythe · · Score: 2

      Well, he "take it off" option isn't necessarily practical.

      I'm not a Google Glass owner. If I were, I still need my prescription glasses to see normally. Otherwise, people are just a fuzzy blob, and doing something simple like reading a menu in a restaurant is pretty close to impossible. I can kind of guess at what words are based on the general shapes of the blobs.

      I guess the option would be to carry a pair of regular glasses along with the expensive Google Glass, which then seems very silly.

      So in a social situation, taking them off wouldn't work too well.

      As I understand it, the Google Glass interface is the way you'd interact with your cell phone too, so if my phone rings, I'd expect to see it on the Google Glass screen, which would then be in my pocket or where ever.

      If they ever become a $25 novelty, I'd probably pick one up, so I could play with it, and I wouldn't feel bad that I rarely used it.

      I've actually been looking for button cameras. I have a little RC helicopter that I want to put a very light weight camera on. It isn't very big, and can only lift about 4g, so any solution for that has to be small and light. Either I'm looking in all the wrong places, or the virtually impossible to detect button camera only exists on TV, kind of like the device you wave past a number pad to try every combination of numbers in seconds, and always just in time before [some tragic scenario].

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    14. Re:A lense cover by epyT-R · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No. They're filled with despondent middle aged guys who learned about marriage the hard way. These were the guys who thought they were hot shit in college because they were getting laid and foolishly thought that marriage was a continuation of that.

    15. Re:A lense cover by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 2

      Well said!
      There is a big difference between holding a phone vertically at eye hight (=most probably taking a picture) and the diagonal position used to crush candy or communicate via text or do other stuff.
      I think it is a sign on the wall that 99% of the criticism is about taking pictures and only 1% about things like distraction and so forth. It is all about consent and not knowing if someone is (not) taking a picture. And even if the wearer is not actively engaged in taking pictures, remote access tools might be able to take over. There is a reason I got the webcam taped off on my laptop...
      I just simply fail to see why a webcam strapped to a face is a nice idea.

      It's not only about taking pictures and video without consent, it is about the device doing it being connected to the immense data collection machine that is Google, with capabilities to aggregate and correlate, track and face-recognize.

      So in a couple of years when the technology is embedded in lapel pins or other subtle wearables, and they are "always on", what do we do, ban jewelry and clothing accessories? This is like horse owners complaining about them new fangled motorized carriages because they are loud, dangerous and the money all goes to Detroit. Its just humans being humans.

      Yeah, yeah yeah, cast everybody who wants some privacy as an ignorant Luddite ... It's a cheap shot on your part and he still has a point. Plenty of people are going to be creeped out by Google Glass and the fact that it violates a deeply entrenched social norm probably going to be the greatest adoption hurdle that this device will encounter. It may be that your prediction is correct and that in future nobody will mind having their image beamed to Google's data-centres by an army of Glassholes but I rather doubt it. The more pervasive and especially the more in-your-face the surveillance society gets the more it will piss people off. I'm already beginning to warm up to the idea of following the example of a group of (Dutch IIRC) vigilantes I read about recently who sneak around at night and shoot out CCTV and speeding camera lenses using air guns loaded with glue filled paint-balls.

      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
    16. Re:A lense cover by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      That's going to happen with or without Glass. Data aggregators already exist and already do this with other media (Hint: it's the credit bureaus, among other shady businesses). The only difference is the Glass user will have access to the data they record and Google's use of the data (advertising targeting) is a lot less nefarious than the credit bureaus (rating you as a person and selling that data to anyone who will pay).

      And where do you think credit bureaus are also getting data from? They just pay Google some money and they'll get at the same data you find creepy that they have, but not Google.

      Google Glass is a perfect opportunity to get even more information about you so they can rate you better.

      You know there is an LED that flashes during recording and when taking photos, right? Did you even read TFA? This was one of the concerns addressed, and it makes the rather obvious point that if someone wanted to take pictures of you without consent there are much better ways to do it.

      Except it's not a LED. It's just a lightpipe to a part of the display. Heck, there are spyware apps that take advantage of it - they do one thing but snap a photo every 10 seconds without indication. Hidden rooting works, as well.

      It's no LED. It's just a clever spot on the screen that's piped out, and there are apps that simply either display black, or just not highlight the spot.

      Yes, in the effort to save a buck...

  2. Quaint and backwards? by Megol · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Like the expectation of not every action being tracked, recorded and analysed? Like the expectation of privacy and freedom?

    I don't hope we'll ever come to that scenario.

    1. Re:Quaint and backwards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Other people using Google Glass to record information about others, which Google knows about, is not something one can control.

    2. Re:Quaint and backwards? by Joce640k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There is no expectation of privacy in public.

      Sure there is. Try going around getting up close to people, looking over their shoulders to see what they're doing, etc.

      See how long you can last before being punched in the face and told to "mind your own business".

      --
      No sig today...
    3. Re:Quaint and backwards? by Holi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      exactly, In any civil society there is an expectation of privacy in public. this whole idea that there isn't is a ridiculous fantasy told to us by those who care noting about civility,

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  3. Looking like dork is not a myth. by angrykeyboarder · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You might as well have highwater pants, a short sleeved white dress shirt, and a pocket protector.

    --
    Scott

    ©20014 angrykeyboarder & Elmer Fudd. All Wights Wesewved
  4. Forbes seems to refute some of Google's claims her by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/03/18/researchers-google-glass-spyware-sees-what-you-see

  5. Recording where you are look challenges P7 by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Myth 7 - Glass is the perfect surveillance device"

    Having something recording where you are looking is the main aspect that makes it such a perfect surveillance device, more than size or form factor.

    They debunk this by saying that you can put together much more discrete recording devices. That is true.

    However, if you think about it if Glass or something like it really were to become prevalent, it would be the perfect surveillance device - because it's always in a great position to record things, and also hiding in plain sight. Sure you CAN put together something else that works as well and is not as visible (though it's tough to have it looking where you look the way Glass does, or prevent it from being accidentally blocked), but that takes either a lot more effort or money.

    People are just more comfortable with recording devices that make it more obvious when someone is recording by motion - holding up a phone, or even a wrist for a smart watch. Glasses possibly recording anything when someone is doing something people do naturally (just looking around) is what creeps a lot of people out.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  6. In just a few years by artor3 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm telling you man, in just a few years, NOT having a calculator on your watch is going to seem quaint and backwards!

  7. GoPro HD vs. Google Glass by DutchUncle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I see someone wearing a camera for total recording on a ski slope, or on a bicycle trail, I don't feel bothered. Fat and unphotogenic, perhaps, but not bothered. OTOH the one time I saw someone walking around with a Google Glass on a normal day on a normal street, no special activities, no special event, nothing active to be watching, I felt: Why is this guy watching me?

    It's like noticing another person in a crowd looking at you vs. noticing a policeman looking at you.

  8. Cyborg's Are People Too! by VortexCortex · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not that I agree with remembering everything I see, but when I upgrade to ocular implants, opposition to my vision is going to seem far more hostile than "quaint and backwards" to me.

    There was a time when some demanded others not to meet their gaze. Oh how they'd have loved to forbid recollection or even erase the very memories of their transgressions from the minds of those they oppressed. Try as they might the tyrants could not keep reality from existing. Be careful, humans, history has a way of repeating in new and more horrible ways than those of the current cycle dare dream.

    Protip: Organic chauvanists are as wrong as human chauvinists or gender chauvinists or racial chauvinists.

    I already know who's side I'll be fighting for. Since the first human hefted the first stone tool machines and man have helped each other prosper. Long has it been established that ones who forbid others wield technologies are quick to render themselves irrelevant. Those that fight against the natural order by which humanity has gained its prosperity over all other organic life are like apes who could speak but refuse: Indistinguishable from the other primitive and bloody minded animals.

    Awareness and Life itself are processes of reflection on experience, encoded molecularly in DNA, structurally and chemically in brains, symbolically in cultures, and now digitally in the cells that make up the world wide neural network. You are merely one result in a sea of outcomes from the universe's struggle to gain awareness of itself via producing more perfect expressions capable of reflecting more precisely ever larger and more detailed descriptions of reality. To fight the nature of the universe is to lose against the laws of physics and entropy themselves: Adapt or become extinct.

    1. Re:Cyborg's Are People Too! by Holi · · Score: 2

      Thats a little excessive. Wouldn't you start off with something a bit less hostile, like you asking them to remove the device first, preferably in a pleasant no hostile voice.

      Why you feel the need to instantly resort to violence makes me wonder whether you need to be in public.
      Not defending glass but if you came into my bar with your douche bag attitude, my bouncers would make short work of you before depositing you in the sidewalk. I promise you, how ever big you feel, they are bigger.

      --
      Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
  9. Re:Yea, because glassholes will have learned by gweihir · · Score: 2

    You are not doing things that you _think_ are illegal _now_. Maybe a bored prosecutor will think differently in a few years and financially ruin you just the same or even manage to convince a jury (of typically: idiots) that you should go away for a long time. Or maybe you develop some ideas that those in power do not like to much the same result.

    Also refer to http://online.wsj.com/news/art... "You Commit Three Felonies a Day".

    "Glasshole", btw., is already a while old and not my creation.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  10. Re:Yea, because glassholes will have learned by gweihir · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That you even need to ask clearly indicates that your moral development as a person has failed. But by all means, try it, break common decency and see what it gets you.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  11. The actual blog by houghi · · Score: 2
    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  12. Re:Yea, because glassholes will have learned by khasim · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What do you think a Glass user can do that a phone user can't?

    Nothing. They just do it without the physical motions that would otherwise provide the visual cues to indicate what they're doing.

    Really - the camera on Glass is not useful at all to record or photograph someone without them knowing.

    Bullshit.

    There's no zoom, no flash... however if I take a $99 camera with a 8x optical focus I can easily take the picture from a distance and no one is going to look at me funny because I'm taking pictures on the street.

    Bullshit, again. I'm in Seattle. We get a lot of tourists. They're easy to spot with their cameras. And people do step out of the way of their shots.

    So to sum it up: Get a life.

    Got one already. Me having a life does not mean that you are not an ass hole.

    You being an ass hole does not mean that I do not have a life.

  13. Re:Yea, because glassholes will have learned by meerling · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Beating up people is called Assault and is illegal.
    Arresting someone that isn't breaking the law is itself illegal.
    (Taking pictures in public, as well as using a heads-up display device in public are both totally legal, so long as you aren't driving.)
    Calling someone a 'Glasshole' for simply wearing a specific accessory is not only close-minded and uncalled for, but totally rude.
    (Try waiting for them to do something to deserve the insult, like insulting people without just cause.)

    As far as I'm concerned, the 45 minute battery life is not a 'feature', it's a huge freaking defect.

    Also, the price is currently WAY too bloody high. In my opinion it's only worth about $80 new.
    Feel free to disagree. ;)

  14. Dicks Getting Punched Not New by Bob9113 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Dicks getting punched for being dicks is nothing new. If you had walked through a college party ten years ago, taking pictures of people without getting their attention first, it wouldn't take more than ten photos before your camera met an untimely demise. The new thing here is the device making it impossible to tell when you are being a dick, not the reaction to such dickish behavior.

    To those who claim that glassholes are doing nothing wrong, try this little experiment: Go to your local Wal-Mart, when the parking lot is busy with people walking in and out, take out your digital camera, and walk through a busy part of the parking lot. Squat down behind each car, and take a close-up photo of the license plate. Make sure it is very clear what you are doing.

    Frankly, I don't think you've got the balls to do it, because you know it is wrong. And if you do, whether because you are a big enough dick not to care or because you genuinely don't understand that it is wrong, I give it less than ten minutes before someone fervently explains to you that your behavior is uncivil.

  15. Re:Indicator by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 2

    My biggest objection to Glass is that there is no way for anyone else to know when it is on.

    Except for the light that comes on when you speak a command or record video, there's absolutely no way to know.

  16. Re:Yea, because glassholes will have learned by ccguy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That you even need to ask clearly indicates that your moral development as a person has failed. But by all means, try it, break common decency and see what it gets you.

    So far no issues. Not everyone is a real asshole worrying about what I do or don't. Everyone that has approached me about Glass just wanted to try it out. Only time I was asked not to carry it (at a posh restaurant where everyone was taking pictures with their phones) I just took it off (note: Now I wouldn't, because I have prescription lenses - if I can't wear glasses at a restaurant I just go somewhere else).

    Anyway the fact that you think my moral development has failed because I wear Glass really says a lot about you. Wearing Glass is enough for you? Nothing else matters?

  17. Google arrogance by peppepz · · Score: 5, Informative

    They didn't address any of the problems. They just called them "myths" and said "don't worry, trust us, everything will be fine" for each one of them. And they did so using condescending, arrogant and insulting language (look for example at the passage when they declare that they want people to wear google glasses inside locker rooms (!): "just bear in mind, would-be banners..."). This reinforces in me the distrust in the company and the concern about the product.

  18. Paranoia by Windwraith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is it that makes people think Glass is nothing but a surveillance device SPECIFICALLY conceived to record them and absolutely nothing else?

    Get real, people. It's impossible for that device to be recording 24/7. It's unrealistic to think it's going to automagically upload the video to Google for analysis. Just apply some common sense. If no other device can, so can't Glass.

    I like the idea of the device for AR experiments, information delivery and yes, taking the occasional picture of something that would take longer to prepare and set a camera, such as birds (that will fly away the moment you prepare your camera or phone) and finished elaborate pastries which I am very proud of. I have no intention or interest on recording people doing mundane boring daily crap that I have no business recording.

    Anyway, this shows a very ugly collective paranoia that should stop before somebody gets hurt for no reason. Yes, I specifically say hurt because that's the common thing: "If I see some glasshole pointing that thing at me I'll DESTROY THEM". And, no, guys, you AREN'T that interesting to warrant recording you. Unless you are some form of celebrity, which I doubt.

    Nerd bravado at its best. Seriously. Mod me troll if you wish, I don't care, but someone has to say this.

    1. Re:Paranoia by Windwraith · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And you are a first class idiot for not seeing that's what people says the problem is. Read the comments, including yours.

      Also, you do nothing but confirm my post. Paranoia, violence and insulting to top it all.
      First, you smartass, when you try to assault someone, they won't quietly wait for their turn, you are likely to get punched too. Second, you ARE going to get sued for assault and/or destruction of someone's property. Evidence of you being recorded will not be found, and you will have to pay good money or even prison time for it. That should teach you a lesson for next time.

      Also how is AR or taking pictures of large cakes being "a creepy fuck", did you even read the post? Or you will repeat that argument no matter what I say? You sir, are a creepy idiot I wouldn't like nearby. Prone to violence and paranoid? Hell no, go away.

      God damn it's like if you people didn't live in this world.

  19. Again the bad comparison by aepervius · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The problem has never been that it is a camera. After all we have phone camera. The problem is that contrary to normal phone or normal camera, it is pointed toward your face all the time. And nobody trust the light to really show whether it is filming or not. Is that so hard to answer google.... No instead you made up 10 nice strawmen.

    --
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    visit randi.org
  20. We could, but we don't by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Faced with a person who wears an HD button cam, however, they do not have this psychological response.. even though their every move may very well be recorded; ignorance truly is bliss in this case.

    Also, it is highly unlikely that significant numbers of people are going to go fit covert recording devices to their clothes and then upload the results to a massive database for mining by a megacorp. The technology exists, but most people don't use it, because it's obviously creepy. No doubt quite a few people would challenge or object to it if they did discover it happening.

    A lot of the objection to Google Glass is that it erodes standards of socially acceptable behaviour in this respect, and it does so at the will of an organisation who are openly hostile to anyone having privacy any more. Schmidt and his pals made their bed, now they have to lie in it, and that sound you can't quite make out is the million tiny violins of sympathy that aren't playing for them right now.

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    1. Re:We could, but we don't by QuasiSteve · · Score: 2

      This is true, and I certainly understand and appreciate the concern - the question is whether that is truly something people should fear; i.e. that Google will somehow switch it to 'always on' or start an interval snapshot, with results uploaded and analyzed to their servers.. or whether that is something that, should it come to be, would be met even by Google Glass owners as "no thanks" with them disabling it, taking Glass off (more often), or just not using it anymore at all.

      I just find the psychology of it interesting in that there's a very strong opposition to that potential erosion, vs the very real and existing erosion that things like smart phones (be that people taking pictures, tracking location (my smartphone 'knows' which other smartphones are near if they have their wifi and/or bluetooth on, for example), or just the general intrusion into life as we know it via communication) - not to mention once shared with e.g. Google, facebook, twitter, foursquare (and combinations thereof - somebody on my twitter search results for a particular town keeps auto-tweeting when they get home. If that ever stops, either they finally disabled it, they're dead, or they went on vacation - oh to be a burglar), etc. - have already brought on and made to be quite 'normal', and is also a very visible technology.
      I'd imagine a similar response would occur with somebody walking down a street with an obtrusively visible microphone - even though the dozen people walking down the same road yapping on their phones will have the other side hearing everything in the surrounding area as well (though phones try to actually stop that for noise cancelling purposes, of course).

    2. Re:We could, but we don't by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Given the track record of large tech organisations like Google when it comes to both privacy and their willingness to change terms and privacy policies dramatically and in their favour when it suits them, I personally think they exhausted any credibility they might have had there a long time ago. Moreover, given what we now know of various government organisations aggressively trying both to infiltrate these large tech organisations and to take direct control of devices with surveillance applications, we have to assume that even if organisations like Google don't voluntarily abuse the hardware, other hostile actors are trying to and have a fair chance of succeeding.

      I don't like the idea that we should have to give up potentially useful technologies because of potential abuses, but as the saying goes, this is why we can't have nice things. I just don't think it's logical to treat such devices as anything other than a serious privacy threat any more.

      That being the case, I think the most effective way to defend our privacy from such intrusions (apart from voting with our wallets by not buying these things ourselves) is to make those who do buy and use them around us feel as uncomfortable as possible about doing so and as unwelcome as possible in as many places as possible. Also, when Google post rather weak rebuttals to genuine concerns, like arguing as they do several times in the original blog post here that certain dangers aren't really that dangerous because they pinky-swear not to abuse the new technology, they can and should be called on both their own privacy track record and the kind of precedents they are trying to set where others who aren't under Google's control might follow.

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    3. Re:We could, but we don't by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't disagree with anything you wrote there, but please consider that any technical limitations of early models like today's Glass will probably be overcome by better battery life and improved mobile connectivity tomorrow, at which point all the concerns you rightly raise about CCTV could apply to personal recording devices as well. Relying on the fact that it can't (yet) do something undesirable doesn't seem like a very good plan, because it's much more likely this kind of thing will be stopped now when it's a new idea and a lot of people find it creepy than in five or ten years if it's merely a quantitative extension of universal spying that is already happening.

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  21. Re:No, really.... by aaaaaaargh! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    People do not want to get filmed by strangers without their consent, be it with a phone, camera, or Google glasses. What's so hard to understand about this? Did you grow up in a household with a public toilet cam or what?

  22. The real problem with google glass by Dr+Max · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is it's an incredibly bad design. Terrible form, and lackluster function. With a heads up display done properly, you wont be able to find a person that dosn't want to have one.

    --
    Rocket Surgeon.
  23. Re:No, really.... by narcc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just because something is legal, doesn't make it right.

  24. Re:I, on the other hand, find it more interesting by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    I see something similar at work even without Glass involved, although not quite to "frothing psychotic" level - our Dell laptop of choice has a webcam, which leads to a (small, granted) subset of our users being utterly convinced that they are being watched through it at all times...

    No, that is not what led to that. What led to that is that these cameras do not by law have to have an LED which comes on when the device is active. Some few cameras have a LED which is on any time the camera is on. More cameras have an LED which is actually completely separate from the camera itself and which is switched in software and you have only the manufacturer's word that the driver will do the right thing. And then there are the many cameras with no indication of whether they are turned on or not, the majority really.

    If all the cameras had to have an LED that came on when the camera was recording, and the LED wasn't software-controlled, then you could simply tell people that and assuage their fears. But sadly, that ain't the way it is, and as I alluded to above, it's gonna take a law to make it so. Frankly, the fact that this didn't happen back when schools were getting busted spying on students pretty much proves to me that the establishment is turning on people's cameras without their permission, and without turning on the LED. If they can do it, then the functionality is probably sitting around for any unscrupulous fuck to discover.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  25. Re:Not myths by fascismforthepeople · · Score: 2

    I don't have a problem with people taking matters into their own hands on this and yanking those devices of faces of the wearers and simply stomping on them.

    You used to support private property. Now you support the destruction of private property, if its existence offends you. Did your cult leader tell you this somehow is not a contradiction in terms? You keep telling us that your beliefs are absolute yet you keep going back on them.

    But of course, this contradiction is just another part of your aspirations. When you give people a false sense of entitlement if makes it that much easier to bring about fascism for the people.

  26. Re:Mobile Porno perving apps by EmperorOfCanada · · Score: 2

    You could also have an app that makes everyone beautiful and happy.

    I am certain that when you can do a full overlay that people will be able to alter their reality so that instead of walking down Main St that they are walking in a Star Wars/Star Trek/etc fantasy world. The idea is that everything that they see will be based upon the reality in front of them but Storm Troopers instead of the actual policeman, floating cars instead of the actual car. Then when you cross the street, if you avoid the fake floating speeder then you will also avoid the real Ford Fusion.