Not too long ago, I wrote about Google Glass and how we are living in the future. For those of you who don’t know, Google Glass is the latest and greatest from the search engine powerhouse. It’s internet that you wear on your face, with all sorts of applications (including recording life as you see it).
When thinking about the future and the amazing technology that will come with it, it is easy to glaze over the negative implications of what that technology may mean. For example, if a person can take your picture with just a wink, are they also going to be able to access your Facebook or Google Plus profile by doing a search of your images? I mean, we know that technology is at least borderline available already.
Could Google Glass potentially mean the end of your anonymity?
Not according to Google. Last week, the Project Glass team updated their Google Plus profile to explain that they understood this concern.
“As Google has said for several years,” they explain, “we won’t add facial recognition features to our products without having strong privacy protections in place. With that in mind, we won’t be approving any facial recognition Glassware at this time.”
And in an astounding display of actually practicing what they preached, they then went on to update their developer policies for Google Glass to ensure that no one was developing “glassware” that failed to uphold their promises.
That’s not to say that everyone necessarily believes that Google will keep its word. Lambda Labs, which was specifically developing facial recognition software for the Google Glass, has tweeted, “Don’t worry, we think it’s a core feature. Google will allow it or be replaced with something that does.”
And it’s not as if they don’t have a point.
Google has already opened the door by not promising outright that facial recognition software will never be used by Google Glass. They simply say (in a fancy way) that their privacy policy isn’t ready for facial recognition software yet.
Whatever happens, it is very apparent that with great power comes great responsibility.
What do you all think of the potential power that Google Glass wields. Would facial recognition be a cool new tool or is it potentially the next battle for the autonomy over our identities?
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Christine Martindale is one of the Account Managers at SEOhaus. If you would like to stay up-to-date on all of the latest SEO industry news and tips, you can subscribe to our blog here. Thanks for reading the SEOhaus blog!
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