Google Glass

How does the concept of growing acceptance of government surveillance and common negative reactions to Google glass mesh? I mean really. One of the growing stories from Boston is the perception regarding the surveillance cameras. While they certainly did not prevent the event there is little denying that the pervasive series of government and private cameras played a key role in swiftly identifying the suspects involved. While it is a controversial topic it is a technology with widespread support.

So why the outcry over the supposed lack of privacy due to Google's new 'glass'? Reading through the same news sources you would come to two different conclusions regarding Glass and Surveillance technologies even though at their heart they are both about ubiquitous  cameras in public. One seems to have begrudging and even ardent supporters while the other has many going... well its cool... But. And the But is privacy.

I suppose the problem is the personal nature of an individual taking a picture or video vs a company/agency doing so. But the possible consequences are essentially the same. IE someone can track and irrevocably prove your guilt/embarrassment if they have access.

In theory Google glass is something of a wet dream for surveillance schemes. Imagine the Boston bombing in this manner. A large percentage of the folks are wearing glass in place of smart phones/video cameras etc... to capture the event for their personal use. Pictures are stored on Googles servers. Minutes after the bomb google or government agency of your desire is querying time stamps of all pictures\video against time, location and direction of pointing and soon a chronological series of images of the point of the explosion is captured from numerous angles. Tracking back through time it becomes less well covered. But as more information becomes apparent like when the bag appeared and who was present they begin tracking all movement of individuals in the area looking for the next link... All people with backpacks matching color/size etc... looking to link someone with a bag before and without a bag after. One team begins back tracking as far as possible while the next team is moving forward looking for the trail of the perpetrator.

It is all a bit Minority Report. But... it is something a technology like glass and permanent connections to a cloud service like Google could make a reality. If you are ok with permanent camera installations what is the big deal about people walking around with permanently connected cameras?

Personally I am not a huge fan of surveillance by governments. I am not a huge fan of people experiencing by photography... IE the act of taking so many pictures you are never actually there because you just spend your whole time taking pictures. It is like you are trying to take it with you without even actually enjoying it while you are there. But a lot of that problem is due to the interface with the device. The idea of having something like Glass taking a time lapse of something I am doing so that I can later browse through it and select some to remember the event by is actually pretty appealing to me. And of course it is that concept of a device perpetually recording everything I see which causes such a stir. Logically (which I admit has little to do with this concern) there should be effectively no difference in common public areas between the possibility that at any given point you are being recorded by someone shooting a camera from somewhere and knowing that everyone is recording all the time. Realistically it makes a difference because that is how we are wired. "Might be recorded" is not the same as "Are being recorded". And the assumption for a Cellphone falls to one side while the assumption for someone wearing Glass seems to fall to the other. It will be very interesting to see where the technology goes from here.