Watch Out for Google Glasses
thestreet.com
thestreet.com
" My Google Glasses might display the social security number,"
... Is that a feature that google is rolling out? How would that information get into your glasses?
"Public places will have to come up with new policies. "
They already have policies on recording if they're worried about it, and people always have recording devices on their premises (cell phones).
" You can just hear the panic buttons after the first pictures from people cheating in school or filming in the locker room are released on YouTube."
Man, that's going to be so crazy because right now I can't find ANY videos from inside class rooms.
This article had a really good chance to talk about behavioral changes that will take place when you feel like you're constantly being recorded. For instance, I hate the sound of my recorded voice so when someone is around with these, I'll probably be less outspoken. Instead, they went for sensationalist crap like social security numbers, schools and banks.
It makes sense that at one point we can link massive databases together. Which ironically could be generated by the very public who will wear these glasses. Something like Wikipedia, that can describe any person or object. I suspect the first adoptations of these technologies to be homebrew and opensource.
In the end it is us who crave this information overload, Google will just wants to target us with relevant ads.
Seriously? Then you're not looking very hard.
Actually there are many videos posted to Youtube of interactions between students and teachers, some of whom were apparently deliberately provoked by the students expressly for the purpose of recording and posting online.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2175062/EyeTap-augme...
And that's before the Government subpoenas the feed from the camera and turns you into a walking CCTV. Orwell would have been so proud of Google...
As cool as google glasses are, imagine they become "effectively needed" as a technology. Then it becomes almost a foregone conclusion that law enforcement will want access to it. While I can imagine bad outcomes, what about things like alibis and so forth? We always touch on the bad uses of technology, but for once can we approach this from the opposite direction? Along the lines of the Russian meteorite, lots of video was captured by chance due to dashboard cameras meant for stopping fraud. Lets imagine a society that has equal access to everyone elses google glasses streams. While I can imagine a dystopia, I can also imagine some rather interesting societal developments from it as well.
I'm thinking along the lines of a short story I read a while back where everyone had their upper vertebra removed and some tech installed that would record everything a person saw/did literally and everyone else could know when other people looked at their own data and when. Aka, ooh i need to call bob, but lets see what he's up to first because I don't want to interrupt him, oh he's with susan at a good restaurant, guess it can wait. I think this technology could have great uses as much as it could have bad. I only expect bad use from our government and police forces, but that is more because they always want more access. But the converse is think about crowds, we could start identifying agent provocateurs, and mass recording and uploading bad acts. These are as much an agent for change in the system as they are for oppression not?
Thoughts? I'm just rambling now and need to shut up, if you read this far I owe you one beer. :)
Email me if you ever make it to Boulder and I will collect the beer. ;)
Was just trying to look at the idea of ubiquitous technology from the positive side of things. I love conspiracy theories but I just get the nagging feeling that we're over worrying about downsides to this specific situation.