Google Glasses Raise Privacy Concerns
If you haven’t heard of Google’s newest offering, you’ve probably living under a rock. So for all you rock dwellers, Google Glass is basically a computer which you can wear around your head and looks cool to boot. According to the adverts, you can take pictures with it, you can record video and send it to people you know on social networks within seconds. And this is where the privacy concern comes in.
Imagine this – you’re out in a mall with a few of your best pals and you guys pick a spot where you love to hang out because they never throw you out for being the kind of crazy you are when you get together. However, today when you walk in there’s someone there wearing a Google glass (or glasses, I’m not sure of the correct term as of yet) smack in the center of the place. What would you do? Remember this person has the ability to record every expression on your face and every less than flattering pose and post it online within minutes just by facing in your direction. Yes, scary.
While it is true that to activate Glass you would need to tilt your head, or touch the side, and then say, "OK Glass, record a video" or "OK Glass take a picture", it still is quite possible for someone to record a video in a busy place without anyone even noticing.
Guardian.com reports that Joshua Topolsky, an American technology journalist who is one of the few to have tried out Google Glass– at Google's invitation – wore them to Starbucks, accompanied by a film crew. The film crew were asked to stop filming, "But I kept the Glass's video recorder going, all the way through." Yikes!
I know what you’re thinking - aren’t companies bound by some kind of law that protects consumer’s privacy? But for Google, "privacy" means "what you've agreed to", and there are enough memes on the internet to tell you that “I have read the Terms and Conditions” is the biggest and most common lie among people today. Faced with what will probably be pages and pages of terms and conditions even I could imagine getting bored and just wanting to start using the newest gadget I just bought for $1500.
The fact that we already have our online activities tracked by several sites and companies (Google’s Ad sense creeped me out for a few weeks by advertising the things I was searching for, making me feel like it was watching me), and now we will not be able to escape being tracked in the real world as well. It may be time for that full scale paranoia previously reserved for a zombie apocalypse/alien invasion. Only don’t let someone record you holding those torches and pitchforks…
