Althouse: "On the one hand, [using Google Glass] to capture a photo with nothing but a wink is worryingly creepy."

February 5, 2014

"On the one hand, [using Google Glass] to capture a photo with nothing but a wink is worryingly creepy."

"As is real-time facial recognition. On The Other Hand, technology companies from LG to Microsoft to Apple are also raising privacy eyebrows."

Privacy eyebrows. I love the idea of privacy eyebrows. If everyone around you is taking photos with winking, surely you ought to be able to do something with the raising of privacy eyebrows.

13 comments:

traditionalguy said...: LOL. You are on a roll this AM. Was it Seinfeld that triggered you inner comedian?; 2/5/14, 9:47 AM
Bob Ellison said...: I've got it! Make a small visor with a bright LED in front. Raise your privacy eyebrows, and the LED turns on, making your face pretty much un-photographable!; 2/5/14, 9:51 AM
Bob Ellison said...: We can market it as Gugle Mask!

Maybe the light should go on when you frown instead. And another LED could bathe your face in skin-tone-warming light when you raise the eyebrows, in case you want to be photographed.; 2/5/14, 9:53 AM
Deirdre Mundy said...: The real-time facial recognition is why I'd WANT Google Glass!

Think of all the awkward conversations in the grocery store you'd avoid-- no more recognizing someone who seems to know you, but not being able to identify their name or where they come from as you desperately try to pluck hints from the conversation.

Instead you could be all "Hey, Mary! Great to see you! I didn't realize you shopped here! How's little Dorothy's eczema doing?"

The reason you people oppose it is that it would make it possible for the socially inept to pass as normal!; 2/5/14, 10:02 AM
Ann Althouse said...: There are going to be a hell of a lot of photographs of people looking disgusted and annoyed.; 2/5/14, 10:39 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Or will people learn to do a phony standard face to protect themselves from other people taking and controlling ugly pictures of them.

You won't have time to give the finger.

Maybe you won't have time to get disgusted.; 2/5/14, 10:40 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Google Glass might bring back old-fashioned sociability. You've got to go about with a pleasant expression and greet anyone who comes toward you as if you were perfectly nice and please to meet them.; 2/5/14, 10:42 AM
Strelnikov said...: As I may have mentioned before, read Dave Eggers' "The Circle" to see where this is headed.

Secrets Are Lies.
Sharing is Caring.
Privacy is Theft.; 2/5/14, 10:45 AM
cubanbob said...: This might be a good time to invest in disguise company stocks.; 2/5/14, 10:51 AM
Sigivald said...: Tiny cameras mean "privacy in public" (which was an odd idea in the first place) is dead, period, no going back.

(And the more ubiquitous it gets the less it will matter, because everyone will have "ugly" pictures of them floating around.

And if it applies to everyone, people stop giving a damn about it.

Just like worries that Someone Might See You're A Fallible Human Being On Facebook And You'll Never Get A Job.

Except, again, everyone is like that, and everyone knows that everyone is like that.

So it doesn't matter.); 2/5/14, 1:16 PM
Mark Jones said...: Privacy is, if not dead, then lying on its deathbed. There's no putting this genie back in the bottle, any more than we've succeeded at putting any tech genies back in the bottle.

I foresee a demand for all kinds of interesting apps. For one, an app for YOUR Google Glass that snaps constant pics of everyone (and the environment around you (with timestamps), tags them with identity data--so you can calculate from the time/angle/lighting/background just who took (and sent out into the world) that really, really unflattering photo of you. Then you can retaliate. Fun times.; 2/5/14, 2:58 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: ...surely you ought to be able to do something with the raising of privacy eyebrows

Privacy eyebrows are just rebranded Groucho Marx eyebrows. You can get them in any costume shop, and no one will recognize you in them.; 2/6/14, 12:19 AM
jr565 said...: Mark Jones wrote:
"Privacy is, if not dead, then lying on its deathbed. There's no putting this genie back in the bottle, any more than we've succeeded at putting any tech genies back in the bottle."
If the average person can have google glasses they really can't complain about govt intrustion into their lives, or things like cameras on streets. Because govts primary role is to protect the state.should it be less tech savvy than anyone who can buy google glasses?

If you watch James Bond, they always showed Q providing Bond with the latest gadgets that were just a bit better than current technology (except in Moonraker where people were in outer space shooting each other with laser pistols). Imagine if James Bond weren't even allowed Google glasses in a world where the average guy in the street can buy Google glasses.

Whatever the technology govt will incorporate it into its covert activities. That's simply a fact,.

Instapundit makes the argument that people filming cops when they arrest people would keep cops more honest. And it's even a valid point. But, then I don't see why it couldn't work in reverse as well.; 2/6/14, 4:06 PM