Google Glass: Orwellian surveillance with fluffier branding

Google Glass: Orwellian surveillance with fluffier branding

www.telegraph.co.uk

New technology will make us all agents for Google. Nick Pickles, Director of Big Brother Watch, says the implications for privacy are profoundly worrying.

Google Glass is the first major salvo in an arms race that is going to see increasingly intrusive efforts made to join up our real lives with the digital businesses we have become accustomed to handing over huge amounts of personal data to.

The principles that underpin everyday consumer interactions – choice, informed consent, control – are at risk in a way that cannot be healthy. Our ability to walk away from a service depends on

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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Apple Continues to work on Smart Cameras (RFID) for Future Devices

Well now...

I'm a techno-geek. I love all things tech related. But I have to say that this form of technology really raises both my eyebrows.

Why?

Well to me I already feel like I'm having my private life interrupted by annoying little advertisements that are strategically placed on the various websites I visit because they know of my traffic and interests generated by the content I view or research. Now I have to be worried that someone wearing these glasses can now transmit my face (and body) to whom knows who (or what)?

All of this without my expressed permission.

Champions of this type of technology will probably respond with, well if you have nothing to hide then why be worried? And there lies part of the problem. It simply removes more of what small bit of privacy I still (think) I have.

Orwellian Society, a Prison State, a one world order. We have all heard these types of statements and future scenarios. What one needs to understand that this isn't the future, it's NOW! And we are letting ourselves become a willing participant to the stripping of what little personal space we have left.

I guess the question here is, am I alone in thinking that having everyone equipped with a wearable "Camera" is an infringement on one's privacy?

www.telegraph.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous


It is scary how fast they are moving with this.

I for one am not a fan and wont be signing up for that!

Pretty soon they won't even be glasses. They'll be contact lenses that are powered by your body, and if that's the case you'll never know who is recording you.

Has anyone seen Torchwood? Does anyone remember the Torchwood contact lenses? Yep, I forsee those within the next 20 years.

Wow, I thought the GG was actually some sort of wearable computing device, like having the screen on your head, reading this it makes me think twice too about it..

When I first saw this I thought of those old adverts in Justice League of America magazines I used to read as a kid. X-ray glasses, yippee. Hehe.

Man/woman's greed/need for money will make this very possible.

Must dig out my old balaclava from the junk room. They are not x-ray glasses are they or that will not work.

reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous


Hello Johnny good to see you back around. Not sure if you left, but haven't heard you on ATS Live or in threads lately.

On topic. I have always had a conspiracy that Google was secretly owned by the CIA or NSA as a way to monitor things. For example Google Maps on your phone almost works as a GPS device and can tell whoever where you have been. It will be updated to your Facebook page even!

Interesting thread. Star and flagger.

-SAP-

All our concerns will be gently smoothed away, attributed to conspiracy paranoiacs. See the pretty baubles decorating the frames, the wide variety of colors available to facilitate personal preferences.
And now for the new low price of $29.95 with a monogrammed carrying case. .
Older generations may slip through this net, but the younger people who believe their futures depend on being up to speed on the latest tech will flock to these glasses.

It was not a shock to me when I first discovered advertisements on my favorite websites from businesses I had recently googled.

Later than Orwell was Phillip K Dick who littered hid novels with warnings of the encroaching forms Big Brothers influence would take.

Originally posted by SloAnPainful

On topic. I have always had a conspiracy that Google was secretly owned by the CIA or NSA as a way to monitor things. For example Google Maps on your phone almost works as a GPS device and can tell whoever where you have been. It will be updated to your Facebook page even!

It might be interesting to know that one of the CIA's front business's (In-Q-Tel) put in a major amount of 'seed money' into Google (and other business's).

In fact do you remember a company called Keyhole (that was heavily invested by the CIA)? No you say.. Well I bet you've heard of what the program became.. Google Earth..!

In-Q-Tel: A New Partnership Between the CIA and the Private Sector

25 Cutting Edge Firms Funded By The CIA

reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous


So I was on to something there. Thanks for the info buddy!

The author of that article about In-Q-Tel is credible as well. Very good information laid out in there.

-SAP-

m.gizmodo.com...These glasses can also be very usefull.
Come on guys watch this video and try tell me with a straight face that they won't come in handy.

Originally posted by SloAnPainful

So I was on to something there. Thanks for the info buddy!

The CIA has been doing investments for a very long time, but most were clandestine projects. But they had a bridge "in the public's eye" 'Company' to build off of back in the late 90's. Below is a quote from the CIA's IQT website (IN-Q-TEL)

In 1998, CIA identified technology as a top strategic priority, and set out a radical plan to create a new venture that would help increase the Agency's access to private sector innovation. In-Q-Tel was chartered in February 1999 by a group of private citizens at the request of the Director of Central Intelligence and with the support of the U.S. Congress. IQT was tasked with building a bridge between the Agency and a new set of technology innovators.

IN-Q-TEL's TECHNOLOGY PORTFOLIO
IN-Q-TEL's PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGIES

IQT HISTORY

reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous

I guess the question here is, am I alone in thinking that having everyone equipped with a wearable "Camera" is an infringement on one's privacy?

That completely creeps me out.
Everyone watching everyone. Any time you're out among other people.
I like my privacy.
This is the type of thing that'll keep me out of populated places.

People have become fascinated with "technology" to the point that they're like cats chasing a laser pointer.

reply to post by snowspirit


Of course we can always take them off and decide not to wear them. Hell not even buy them...

But it still leaves it open for people with them to film and photo what you are doing without your personal consent. Which is obviously wrong, just wrong. (and creepy)

-SAP-

reply to post by SloAnPainful


That the thing. Other people recording what we're doing without our consent.
I don't want someone else filming me, but we won't be able to stop that.
We can't make other people, not wear their glasses.

We'll all be on record of where we are, what we're buying, eating, drinking, who we're with, etc

Even if we're not doing anything wrong, that's creepy.

Originally posted by glen200376
m.gizmodo.com...These glasses can also be very usefull.
Come on guys watch this video and try tell me with a straight face that they won't come in handy.

Although in a humorous vein (the above video), here is a perfect example of what would probably happen after awhile. Meanwhile everything is being logged, archived and "sent to the clouds" for anyone and everyone to find (and probably quite easily).

Particularly worrisome is these glasses in the hands of perverts and those with less than wholesome ideas/desires/agendas. And you know how respectful the internet can be with information.. right? Even now I can find information on just about anyone, now with these glasses I'll be able to easily associate a face with the name.

Now granted in the case of the Military or Law Enforcement, I can see value in having this form of technology. But in the hands of the private citizen.... I think were just opening up Pandora's Box to a whole slew of problems. With the downside being that it will all be archived to haunt us at a later (or present) time.

I am a geek, I love the cool toys and the wonderful stuff technology allows us to do.
While I understand peoples concerns about privacy, I don't think it's going to reach the point where someone tags you in a shot, and you suddenly get targeted advertising sent to your glasses.

Largely because of battery life.

I have yet to see any stats on how long the battery life would be for someone to use the glasses for. However, add in the energy costs of wifi/mobile internet and you are looking at a serious and constant battery drain. Then you can add in the energy drain in constant use of just the projection unit itself.

Sure your smart phone has up to 8 hours of idle time, but when you start surfing, watching movies, navigation and so on it quickly eats into how long you can do it.

Then, as with smart phones, you can get add blocking software to filter crud out.

I wear glasses, and I would love some sort of heads up display that was light weight and could feed me 3 d movies and the like on the lenses, and yet with a flick of the button allow me to see normally. Think of the applications you could add, distance range finders, pulse and respiration, instant translation of languages subtitled to your field of view and so on.

Can any technology be misused? Certainly, but does that mean we should live in fear of its misuse no. Though I suspect there will be some lawsuits and so on about the privacy issues and selective add targeting.

M.

If only it was a harmless technology, a cool gadget to own, but it's so much more. Essentially a camera in our head, everything we do and say will be recorded and stored in their massive data storage warehouse. Then big brother will get their unjust warrants to seize the data.

reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous


This cafe has banned the glasses in advance.
www.pcmag.com...

Its one thing for cell phones with cam corders everywhere,
another thing altogether with these, too easy to hook up
with facial recognition software...