Google Glassholes and the 2020 vision

Google Glasses, 2020 Vision

Google has published a series of "Don'ts" for Google Glass aficionadoes to prevent them being Glassholes - not because of the danger of nerds being disrepected, but because its bad for business - Don't #4:

...creepy or rude (aka, a “Glasshole”). Respect others and if they have questions about Glass don’t get snappy. Be polite and explain what Glass does and remember, a quick demo can go a long way. In places where cell phone cameras aren’t allowed, the same rules will apply to Glass. If you’re asked to turn your phone off, turn Glass off as well. Breaking the rules or being rude will not get businesses excited about Glass and will ruin it for other Explorers.

And Do #2:

Ask for permission. Standing alone in the corner of a room staring at people while recording them through Glass is not going to win you any friends (see Don’ts #4). The Glass camera function is no different from a cell phone so behave as you would with your phone and ask permission before taking photos or videos of others.

But even this still gives huge permission latitude. Most people would find it creepy if someone was sitting in their social situation with someone recording everything, even if there was not a formal "no camera/mike/recording" sign or no real permision required. As TechCrunch notes:

Google’s challenge is not building the Glass platform, but training the general public to welcome Glass wearers into society. Glass’s future rests largely on the public’s acceptance of the technology. If, like Bluetooth headsets, it’s deemed nerdy or, worse, if Glass is lumped in with the NSA privacy scandle, the technology will be an also-ran. A lot is riding on Google Glass Explorers.

The problem is many "Explorers" - being tech nerds - have the social intelligence of...well, tech nerds - the result is increasing unease with Glass, and the emergence of No Glasses Allowed and similar campaigns' hence the publication of the advice. They'd probably also be well advised to give them to more socially aware people rather than the sort of geeks who will pay $1,500 for the privilege of testing them.

But if you think this is creepy, just roll this forward a few generations of Moore's law when you can wear a much less obvious recording device, and it can access a wealth of Big Data Crunching and layer some form of augmented reality over your vision. Here's a scenario - you can walk into a room in 2020, scan all the faces, and do a search of all the data held against those people from a whole range of sources - on Google, from their social networks, from open data given away, and, for a price, from hacked data apps that give you that little bit more. The picture at the top of this post imagines that - imagine a cocktail party where you could see all the dirt on everyone after a guick glass and google.

Creepy? You bet. Impossible? You're fooling yourself - all those in the picture have happened or may soon do so:

- The infidelity App map: How iPhone can secretly keep track on love cheats (Daily Mail, 2011 – Researchers found that could get stored location data out of iPhones if they knew the phone numbers)
- “How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did” (Forbes, 2012, Target stores algorithms identify pregnant girl)
- “Gay? Conservative? High IQ? Your Facebook 'likes' can reveal traits” (NBC – 2013. University of Cambridge's Psychometrics Centre algorithms.)
- BNP member? Beware the Man in the Middle with a Mission! (Guardian, 2009 - BNP membership list appears on Wikileaks)

The other 2 cases are hypothetical, but could come from Government data already in the frame for being opened up (though I note today we have another 6 months grace for medical records).

Playing Charades at parties will never be the same again....