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Google Glass Picks Up Early Signal: Keep Out
As privacy concerns mount, an increasing number of venues are banning Google Glass, a much-talked-about product that is not yet commercially available.
Credit: Fast Company
Privacy concerns are mounting about Google Glass, a computer worn like glasses that provides Internet access, takes photos, and records short films. Although the wearable computer is widely anticipated, it has been preemptively banned in some locations, including parts of Las Vegas, and West Virginia is pursuing legislation to outlaw its use while driving.
"We are thinking very carefully about how we design Glass because new technology always raises new issues," says Google's Courtney Hohne.
Users must speak or touch the device to activate it, and look directly at a person to take a photograph or video, but privacy advocates are concerned about the device's potential impact on people's privacy in public places. For example, controversy arose over a recent incident at a PyCon developers conference when one attendee posted a photo of two men making inappropriate jokes on Twitter, resulting in one man's dismissal from his job.
Nevertheless, developers are already working on new applications that will test the limits of Glass. For example, a developer has created a program that enables users to take pictures with Glass by winking.
"Google Glass will test the right to privacy versus the First Amendment," says George Washington University's Bradley Shear.
From The Wall Street Journal
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