“Recently a Seattle bar has pre-emptively banned Google Glass from its premises, generating mixed reactions online, but also raising questions about whether they will present a privacy concern when used in public spaces,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“The 5 Point Café made its intentions clear with a post on its Facebook page that stated: ‘For the record, The 5 Point is the first Seattle business to ban in advance Google Glasses. And ass kickings will be encouraged for violators,’ it said alongside a graphic of an eye adorned with the glasses, and a red cross struck through,” Purcher reports. “Once the dialog gets going, we begin to see that Google Glass may not be that cool in many circles in the future. Couriers, visitors, janitors all of a sudden become a threat to businesses as these people get into various offices, have access to files late at night and Google Glasses can go live to whoever is wanting information on their competitors.”
Purcher writes, “Another point in the noted article above stated that we shouldn’t ‘be surprised when those on the sexual offenders’ list in most states are banned from owning/wearing Google Glasses as part of their punishment.’ Some have questioned if Google Glass could be banned in Casinos. And the more the wheels begin to turn you know that the list of those who won’t want Google Glass around them or their offices is going to grow exponentially.”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
way to go Five Points Café.
DO know EVIL!
Without all the politico and media hype, I can put this whole issue to rest one and for all. Anyone wearing Gaagle Glasses looks like an idiot. In Sergeys case he looks like a tool. DOA.
It’s not about the glasses it’s about the bar. $1 million worth of publicity for free! Brilliant move on their part. Think about it.
At some point the act of “recording” could become a prohibited activity. It’s in the grey area today. But I could see Google Glasses pushing this subtle social over the line.
… social ISSUE over the line.
Yeah, that’s what I am trying to babble about.
This sad. It has the potential to crush whatever few remaining rights photographers have to operate in public places.
Yeah, agreed. I like to photograph, all over the place. But I have no delusion that people like, or should like, or should allow, a camera in their face. Taking a picture of a scenario that has many people in it is the grey area. It’s tough. Usually no one minds, but there is always a chance that it catches someone the wrong way. And really that is my fault. It’s a social thing. A consideration.
These obnoxious glasses could push it over the edge.
I want the video shades Marty McFly’s son/daughter were wearing in Back to the Future II, and autolaces on my Nike Air Jordans!
So, if Google hadn’t developed this product, nobody else would have come up with the same idea? Such a panopticon system has been described clearly in Neil Stephenson’s book Snow Crash, and once an idea is out there, it can’t be put back in the bottle. Glasses with video cameras already exist, the only significant difference is the direct connection to the Internet, but as anyone with a cellphone already knows, a continuous data connection is not possible, and certainly not at the data speeds necessary for uploading a video stream.
Dammit, I can struggle to upload a single photo to Facebook, Instagram or Flickr, even when my connection looks solid.
And that’s in a city, or large town; get into a rural situation, and I can see many people being very disappointed when they try to film something, or see a map, and there’s no connection.
A case in point; 15 miles from where I live is a major tourist attraction, and World Heritage site, the 5500 year old stone circle of Avebury. I know of only one of the UK’s phone networks that gets a signal there, mine, O2, certainly doesn’t.
Thus rendering Google Glass utterly useless in a place where many would want to use it.
Android device as a wifi hotspot. I am sure there is some app or capability for this already.
Sorry, what I meant to say was, is there not some Adroid app or capability to have the device act as a wifi hotspot and cache the video to “disk”? Thus making it completely offline with GBs of buffer space.
I had an older sister who was Pagan. In 1993, she ventured to newgrange, in Ireland
…anyway, she also went to Avebury, and later tried to convince me that Earth energy in the form of ley lines (geomagnetic, I ‘d guess) was the reason the monuments were constructed in the places and orientations selected by our Neolithic forebears. She didn’t have a mobile back then, of course, but one can speculate that telephone interference phenomena, such as you describe, could be linked to an intersection of contemporary and ancient technologies…
Perhaps you listen to just a little bit too much of George Noory!
Try holding your phone up in any conversation and say I’m documenting all this so now lets chat – and see what happens! people don’t want to be filmed photoed or recorded in conversations period! Good luck with this product GEEKs will be the only one using it!
I don’t want social networks to intrude on my personal space. Period.
Stupid point of the day –
“Couriers, visitors, janitors all of a sudden become a threat to businesses as these people get into various offices, have access to files late at night and Google Glasses can go live to whoever is wanting information on their competitors.”
Are couriers, visitors and janitors currently restricted from owning / using a smart phone in those same instances?? I believe an iPhone can just as easily “go live” with video and photos as these ridiculous Google Glass devices can, and probably far more discreetly.
Yes, but you miss the point that the iPhone is a “phone” and Google Glasses is designed to record what you see and load it up to the internet. Unless you see people holding up phones with the video record on.
This is “creepware”.
creepware (wear) is right. It is a subtle but massive distinction. I am quite happy to have people come to my house for a party or drinks or whatever, all with iPhones (or what have you). But if some prick shows up with Google Glass on, no one would feel comfortable talking to them, and they would be ejected immediately.
wearing google glass to public restrooms, locker rooms, bathrooms,
etc., and see what will happen. Google must be ready for some
Class Action lawsuits.
I think Google is now on permanent readiness for lawsuits. Class action or otherwise.
They need that new campus to house all the lawyers. Lawyers on bouncy balls.
Maybe I mis-understood the person I talked to over the weekend that I saw using these … she said they connected to her Android device via bluetooth, and used an APP on her phone for storing video / photos, and used the data connection on her phone to get to the internet. She made it sound like this was simply a BT accessory – no onboard memory, no onboard OS, no onboard cell data chip. Just a camera, microphone, battery and BT radio.
She said she could make calls like a BT headset, and could stream video to a caller (like FaceTime). It did not sound like it was broadcasting every movement of her day to the internet. She did show me how you have to tell it take a photo, then tell it to send the photo to someone in her address book – she sent the photo to her friend so she could show me they had received the photo.
She did not show me the video calling – said the call had to go to an Android phone, and her friend was using an iPhone. She did tell it to record a video, which she played back on her phone. I wasn’t impressed with it for sure.
And, it looked absolutely ridiculous on her! We were in a park in Ann Arbor MI over by the Google Offices, I figured she was probably an employee out field testing.
But back to my point – there was nothing I saw, that I couldn’t do with an iPhone, and do far more discreetly with an iPhone. I could easily keep my iPhone in my hand or pocket, while a FaceTime call was running. But wearing those dorky looking cyborg wannabe glasses would be hard to conceal.
Google chairman Eric Schmidt famously said, “Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it.”
Slick workaround: they will instead persuade US to cross it. Brilliant!
iFan is right though. That is a ludicrous statement about the janitors. If they want to steal documents, there are better and more easily available tools.
Google Glass is for being creepy.
The story is over the top. But people are not going to wear those ridiculous glasses unless they are playing a game or using them for work specific purposes.
People walking around with them in public are going to be met with the same kind of greeting as any fool walking around videotaping everything, with at least some contempt.
Why is the invasion of personal space and privacy using GOOGLE glasses a surprise to very one?
The very word GOOGLE tells you what it is about!
GO OGLE! Translates to: “move from one place to another to stare at in a lecherous manner!
Co-incidence? I think not.
Only stupid fucking perverts that work at Google would come up with such an assdumb idea. It stupider than that dumb asswipe Pelosi.
You know, x, you really should shut down the computer, go outside, and then get some therapy. To be so filled with vitriol will eventually rot your brain and soul.
Speak for yourself, why did you get so offended when x made that statement, seems like some vested interest in Google and a real hurt has came to manifest itself from your inner psychological depths.
Suggesting someone needs therapy is Narcissistic personality disorder, look at yourself first before pointing fingers to others as being the issue.
May even grow logarithmically, or parabolically. Dang, it could even go plaid!
Good for the bar. Google is the big brother we should all fear. They read your email, they catalog everything you do on the internet and if Glass gets wide adoption they will soon be able to see everything you do. People forget what google is at the core, it’s an advertising company and the product they sell is you. The more they know about you the more you are worth as a product.
I imagine they salivate at every mention of “Minority Report”