Google Glass Banned at Google Shareholder's Meeting
For all the rabble rousing people are doing over Google Glass and its privacy-invading video-shooting feature, you’d think Google would do everything possible to assuage people’s fears in any way possible, particularly by normalizing the spec’s use.
The company had an opportunity to do so at its shareholder’s meeting on Thursday, but according to CNBC, Google Glass was forbidden in the meeting itself. To be fair, so were a lot of devices, including "cameras, recording devices, and other electronic devices, such as smart phones”; even photography was prohibited, according to the meeting’s instructions.
Some will call Google hypocrites for keeping Google Glass out of the room, but all Google is doing with that directive is acknowledging that Google Glass is a recording device--just like cameras and smartphones and so on.
Perhaps for those walking into the meeting it felt more egregious to remove what is essentially an article of clothing as opposed to just stashing their phones and cameras, and maybe that’s the bigger point to take away from this: Google Glass is more than just another way to shoot video from a mobile device. It’s an accessory that you wear on your face, and one that some people may feel naked without. There’s some extra psychology at work--an intriguing relationship to a device perhaps--that isn’t there with our smartphones.
Of course, now if Google wants to downplay the fact that Google Glass has a very high risk of privacy invasion, they don’t have much of a leg to stand on. Watching the drama around this technology unfold is endlessly fascinating.
The company had an opportunity to do so at its shareholder’s meeting on Thursday, but according to CNBC, Google Glass was forbidden in the meeting itself. To be fair, so were a lot of devices, including "cameras, recording devices, and other electronic devices, such as smart phones”; even photography was prohibited, according to the meeting’s instructions.
Some will call Google hypocrites for keeping Google Glass out of the room, but all Google is doing with that directive is acknowledging that Google Glass is a recording device--just like cameras and smartphones and so on.
Perhaps for those walking into the meeting it felt more egregious to remove what is essentially an article of clothing as opposed to just stashing their phones and cameras, and maybe that’s the bigger point to take away from this: Google Glass is more than just another way to shoot video from a mobile device. It’s an accessory that you wear on your face, and one that some people may feel naked without. There’s some extra psychology at work--an intriguing relationship to a device perhaps--that isn’t there with our smartphones.
Of course, now if Google wants to downplay the fact that Google Glass has a very high risk of privacy invasion, they don’t have much of a leg to stand on. Watching the drama around this technology unfold is endlessly fascinating.
